The natural heritage of southern Russia in the poems by Viktor Krivulin and by Svetlana Kekova

In the works of the leading Russian poets of the religious-metaphysical trend, nature appears as both the object of lyrical reflections and a landscape, which serves as an occasion for reflection on the realised and unrealised. Natural landscapes are perceived within the genres of painting, and their lyrical contemplation contributes to the renewal of the genre system of poetry. The poems by Viktor Krivulin and by Svetlana Kekova were selected for the study; their common features are a deep knowledge of religious and philosophical traditions, a general orientation to the heritage of Russian symbolism, avant-garde and absurdism, the desire for permeability of different lyrical genres and, therefore, the absence of a distinct landscape lyrics. Reflections on landscape are embedded here in reflections on the existential purpose, and the nature of southern Russia is revealed as part of an existential choice. A close reading was chosen as the research method, with contextualisation of the material based on the sustainable cultural images of Russia's southern nature in the culture. Religious-metaphysical poetry always pays attention not only to nature as such, but also to its iconicity, to its reflection in the canonical forms of landscape or ekphrasis. The intense reflection on the role of southern nature in Russian culture is demonstrated in Krivulin's and Kekova's poems through an unusual paradoxical combination of its various “icons”, canonically enshrined in the traditional imagery. The research has shown that, although the poets' prerequisites are different, they create a common concept of the natural heritage of southern Russia. Their prerequisites differ, first of all, in the original experience of the native landscape: for Krivulin, it is the homogeneous northern landscape; for Kekova, it is the landscape diversity of the Volga region. At the same time, the juxtaposition of northern and southern nature is supported not only by landscape observations, but also institutionally, by attention to institutions that have become possible in the natural world of southern Russia. These are not only modern institutions, like resorts, but also ancient ones, such as astronomical observations. The conclusion of the article is that the natural heritage of the south of Russia in the poems by these authors is revealed dynamically rather than statically, in connection with the religious existential understanding of human life. Such persistent features of southern nature as abundance, species' diversity and a wide panorama are symbols for interpreting the mystical experience of joining a different optics. If the north is ascetic, then the south is idyllic, and this idyll is rethought as a possibility of paradise optics in the view of today's social life.