“Poetic Fraction” as a Multiplying Meanings Graphically Active Form of Verse in the Work of Yegor Letov

The article is devoted to the specifi c semantic-generating active graphic form of verse present in Yegor Letov’s lyrics, which can be called a “poetic fraction”. A “poetic fraction” is the writing of individual words or parts of them one below another. This form was actively used by Letov throughout many years of his creative activity. It was revealed that at diff erent stages of creativity, writing in fractions could perform various functions for Letov. In the early poem “The Mountain”, the individual letters in words, written in fractions and creating homophones, help to carry out a kind of game with the reader on the principle of “it seemed – it turned out”. In this game, a visually strange image takes the recipient out of his comfort zone, maintaining a sense of the shakiness and ambiguity of the world. Later Letov mainly uses whole-word fractions. It is established that in two versions of the song’s “Totalitarianism” text the author contrasts the “poetic fraction” with the writing of one of the two words in brackets. The word in brackets acts only as an explanation of the word outside brackets, whereas the fraction allows words to develop a range of meanings: the phenomenon in the “denominator” as the cause of the phenomenon described by the word in the “numerator”; the fi xation on paper of two concepts equally signifi cant for the rock poet, which periodically replace one another in concert performances. Finally, in Letov’s mature work, “fractions” turn into visual bonds between the verses of the work, allowing individual images to be brought closer together. In addition, “fractions” that include adjectives contribute to the formation of a number of epithets, thereby “stringing” additional meanings.