Article

Name: The poetry book “Orchid” by Yuri Galich: exotic and traditional

Authors: Elena Yu. Kulikova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

The paper considers the poetry collection “Orchid” by Yuri Galich (Georgy Goncharenko), published in Vladivostok in 1921 and republished in Riga in 1927 and 1928. The motive structure of the collection is analyzed, with an emphasis on the proximity of Galich’s lyrics to the works of N. Gumilev and K. Balmont and references to the “exotic” prose of I. Bunin (the short story “Brothers”), Baudelaire’s “Flowers of Evil” and others. Maritime motifs are regarded to be related to Galich’s emigrant perception of the world, romantically in love with Gumilev but longing for his lost homeland and unable to engage entirely in the happiness of wanderings. Attention is paid to the images of the Flying Dutchman and Odysseus. Africa and the travel lyrics of Gumilev prove to be the source of tropical and maritime motifs in Galich’s poetry. East Asia is also described (the poems “Ilang-Ilali,” “Kiku-San,” and “Night in Singapore”). The poem “The Sun of the East,” comprising eight parts in the 1921 edition, can be considered an ode to Japan. In terms of structure, without using the odic stanza, the poet tightens the division of the text by connecting two quatrains, thus emphasizing the solemnity of the intonation. Influenced by the symbolists, acmeists, and ego-futurist (Severyanin), the poems of Galich have a literary character. Contamination with ego-futurism and Balmont’s techniques highlights Galich’s attraction to the early Gumilev, who actively used “beauties” and excessive pretentiousness of vocabulary, and reveals the ironic connotation behind the excessively “exotic” poems.

Keywords: еxoticism, Yuri Galich, tropical motives, East, Japan, orientalism

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