The national image of the world in poetics of K.D. Balmont and S.A. Yesenin: The urban space and Indian cosmos

Abstract

The article considers the usage of the national elements in the poetry of K.D. Balmont, through the prism of the urban text. A lot of researches had been devoted to this issue, but scientists mainly appealed to the poems in which the image of the city had been evident, and came to the fore. However, in the work of the symbolist, the image of the city turned out to be closely connected with different countries and cultural traditions of India and Japan. Urban space is conditioned by national peculiarities; it is revealed through the national image of the world. In addition, the poet described the city not only from historical and ethnographic positions, but also from the standpoint of metaphysics. In this article, the considerable attention is paid to the mythology and archetypes in Balmont's poetry. The Indian text, manifested in the poetics of the symbolist, is compared with the provisions from the treatise "The Keys of Mary" by S.A. Yesenin. The new-peasant poet also consciously had turned to the ancient Indian mythology and philosophy, in which he saw the confirmation of his ideas about an eternal life of the soul and its unity with the global space. The typological method allows including the poetry of Balmont and Esenin's philosophical search in the world cultural context, that deepens the meanings of the images in their poetics