Axiology of everyday things in the poetics of Acmeism

The article deals with ontology and axiology of life in Acmeism world-building and poetics. The idea about axiological equalization of life and existence in Acmeism aesthetics is advanced. It is proven that on the stage of Acmeism self-determination, followers of the new direction had to restore real existence devalued by Symbolists. The point of the acmeist conception of life is observed in antithetical comparison with Symbolists' rendering of the phenomenon. Life performed representation of existence (in its direct evidence and material perceptibility) in Acmeism. First of all, Gumiliov's idea about the inherent worth of the real existence brought about the ontological revival of everyday things and, secondly, gave opportunities for their symbolic identification. Acmeists used these opportunities to the full extent. For instance, Osip Mandelstam, basing upon ancient tradition, proved the acmeist conception of a symbol, where domestic articles were signifiers, in other words, utensils. According to Mandelstam, everyday and holy are indivisible. Hence, the most important function of everyday images and motives is to be a guide of general notions and abstract essences. Mandelstam phenomenologically expresses time duration and substance of existence through the images of everyday things. Identification of life and existence caused a second important function of everyday things in the acmeist poetics: "coding" of subject's feelings, which is most noticeable in Anna Akhmatova's work. Basing on the phenomenological study (E. Husserl, M. Heidegger), it is proven that this is possible only in such a poetic system, where the external plan of existence and the inner reality are correlated. Everyday pictures, interior details were a phenomenological mechanism reflecting processes occurring in consciousness and frequently in the subconscious in Anna Akhmatova's early collections. The world of everyday things is regarded in the work of Akhmatova as a semantic "invariant" connected to other hierarchical levels of her poetic world-vision. It is concluded that in their poetry poets-acmeists reflected phenomena which were not considered as objects of lyric investigation. On the one hand, everyday pictures, details of household interior and domestic utility metaphorically personified metaphysical notions, inaccessible for perception, and, on the other hand, they reflected processes occurring in the consciousness, also concealed from other people's perception.

Keywords

Authors

References