Article

Name: The prose poem: genre originality, plot and motive repertoire

Authors: Elena N. Proskurina

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

In the section On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Viktor Georgievich Odinokov, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Education

Abstract:

The research focuses on the prose writings of Russian literature, referred to as “poems” by the writers themselves. The analysis covers a collection that is both compact in number and extensive in terms of time, from “Dead Souls” by N. V. Gogol to “Moscow and Petushki” by Ven. Erofeev. Two characteristics uniting all the works under analysis should be noted. First, all the writings, though having diverse plots, share the epic nature and metaphysical scale of the theme (unique for every writer). Second, a common leitmotif that can be determined as longing for an ideal makes the epic form sound lyrical. It is not the ideal that is emphasized but the longing that translates the external description into an internal action of the character, unfolding from the self to the outside, all this being a characteristic of the lyrical plot. The writers construct their narrative by employing the primary motif of longing for an ideal and its various iterations. They bring forth the poetic essence of these moments portraying life in its highest moments according to the laws governing poetry. The highest moments may appear at opposite poles, such as the rapture of life/love or the rapture of despair/fever of the suffering soul. This research uncovers the motif nests that add a semantic tension, reinforcing the emotional power of the central leitmotif: love/hate towards existence, longing for the ideal, and despair towards the imperfection of the world and man. The prose statement becomes more poetic, shifting towards a high genre.

Keywords: Russian literature of the 19th–20th centuries, prose poem, epic, lyric, genre, motif

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