Article

Name: Poetics of Contrasts in D. I. Stakheev’s Poem “Embassy”

Authors: Zhai Li

Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, China

In the section The Plot, Motive, Genre

Abstract:

The article deals with the storyline and figurative system of D. I. Stakheev’s poem “Embassy”. This literary work is dedicated to the ambassadorial mission undertaken by the Governor-General of the Amur region N. V. Busse in 1863. The article overviews the history of creation of the poem and includes for comparison a unique documentary material translated from Old Chinese – the report of the Governor-General of Heilujiang Tepuqin. As a result it is established that the “distortion” of real events and images of historical figures is necessary for the writer to solve artistic problems, in particular, to strengthen the ideological sound of the poem. The main compositional dominant of the joke poem is the contrast, which sets the ironic tone of the whole work. The poem contrasts not only the two banks of the Amur River (the local rulers and their subordinates), but two types of government and – more broadly – thinking: the invasive one on the part of the Russian Empire and the wise oriental one on the part of China.

Keywords: D. I. Stakheev, the poem “Embassy”, irony, contrast, the image of China and the Chinese

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