А. Platonov's poems in prose as a space for a creative experiment

Turning points in the history are time of creative experiments in culture in general and in literature in particular. This tendency was shown through interference of different types of art and mixture of genre forms at the beginning of the 20th century. In this article the authors analyzed two early stories by A. Platonov: "The Star Desert" (1920) and "The Poem of a Thought" (1920-1921) in the aspect of their genre and discourse structure. The authors show the compliance of the poetics of these short stories and key positions of art of the vanguard which undertook a mission of construction of the new artistic Universe. For the young writer inspired by the idea of the "revolt on the Universe", the turning point in the history and culture opened a possibility of experimenting with a subject, a narration, a style, a genre. In the article the authors prove the syncretic principle which is the basis of the organization of these texts chosen for the analysis. The author's eager desire to find the truth by various ways (knowledge, creative work, practical activities which is characteristic for his early period) becomes an important drive for philosophizing, giving rise to texts unique in the form of sense generation, uniting a narrative type of utterance with a non-narrative one, and notable for their greater expression. The analysis of the genre structure of these short stories has shown they have such genre components as the poem in prose, the manifesto, the public speech. The two latter ones, with their characteristic pretentiousness and high imperatives, show connection of early works by Platonov with the art of Proletkult. At the same time Platonov imitates the public speech not according to the rules of a prepared statement that was a characteristic feature of Proletkult works, but as a public reflection. This fact is confirmed by the incompleteness of thoughts of the subject of the speech, repetitions, emotional tension. The procedural nature of thinking is also marked by discourse transitions - from high to ordinary and again to poetic diction, which is a separate method of interaction with the reader / listener and of influence on their consciousness. In the analysis the authors consider Platonov's definition of both short stories as poems, which is a key to their perception in the paradigmatics of the high genre. It is indicated, in particular, by the lyrization of the speech of the storyteller reflecting both reverence and heroism of his soul. The unity of the author's task consisting in the creative reorganization of the world, similarity of poetic devices, structural and genre compliance allow to read both works as а minidilogy.

Keywords

Authors

References