Typology of Subject Structures of the Real Russian Poetic Epitaph

In the article, diff erent types of subject structures are reviewed based on the texts of real poetic epitaphs, i.e. inscriptions from tombstones. The material for the analysis was 487 texts of real epitaphs of the 18th–20th centuries. The typology of the variants of the subject organization of the texts of poetic tombstone inscriptions is outlined. The texts of real poetic epitaphs, which turn out to be both an aesthetic phenomenon and a “vital” one, reveal the mechanisms of formation of subject-subject relations both in the speech act in general and in the “poetic” utterance itself. Special attention is paid to the fundamental diff erence between real epitaphs and “book” ones that function outside tombstones – on the pages of books and magazines. The subject structure of a real poetic epitaph is determined by its fundamentally dual nature and, above all, by its connection to reality and to human relationships in the context of death and burial. It is this connection, rather than its focus on “aesthetics” or “life”, that distinguishes real epitaphs from fi ctional ones. This distinction is most evident in the diff erent ways in which real and fi ctional epitaphs function and are perceived and read. The specifi c characteristics of the functioning and ensuring reception of a real epitaph directly infl uences its text. Particularly, it is aimed at forming specifi c subject-subject relationship. In the text of the real epitaph, the third participant in communication is actualized – the “collective consciousness” of “passers-by” (cemetery visitors). “Looking back” at the opinion of this interested recipient, a passerby, is inevitably embedded in the process of creating (choosing) the text of a real epitaph. It is the unique nature of such communication that becomes productive for the formation of dialogical relationships in a real poetic epitaph.