G. Ivanov`s poem «I do not ask for love, I do not sing about spring...» in the context of historical poetics: interpretation experience

The article was written as part of participation of students of the Faculty of Philology of the Samara State Social and Pedagogical University in the II regional methodological theoretical seminar «Theoretical studies»: «Historical poetics», which took place in November 2020 [1]. The interpretation of the poem by Georgy Ivanov is given from the standpoint of works on historical poetics and mythopoetics by A.N. Veselovsky, O.M. Freidenberg, E.M. Meletinsky, S.N. Broitman, Yu.M. Lotman. The authors consider that the thinking of the lyric subject of the poem by Georgy Ivanov is distinguished by neosyncretism, which is implemented in the motives of death and rebirth associated with the natural cycle. The understanding of the fusion of wedding and funeral rites, the antinomy of the real world and the other world, which establish a close connection between them, speaks of «neosyncretism» in the poem. The cumulation which leads to the fact that all sensations received through various channels of perception are collected into one common sense-knowledge is shown in the arrangement of artistic images. This is where the desire to find a common in everything, essential similarity, arising from the experience of unity (syncretism) of the entire surrounding world and all its manifestations that affect a person, who should also be its inseparable part, comes from. The article shows that such unity is also manifested in the subjective sphere: the lyrical «I» and the lyrical «you» are not separated from each other and are not opposed. Their unity is manifested in the metaphysical plane: they are united by the «snowy paradise». It is a paradise because love makes the lyric subject happy, but this paradise is «snowy» because lovers cannot be together. The paper examines in detail the key images of the text in connection with folk culture; the specificity of the genre of the song is noted from the point of view of historical poetics.