2022 Vol. 13 №4

Gorod and grad in the Russian poetry of the 18th century

DOI

10.5922/2225-5346-2022-4-6

Pages

85-100

Abstract

Urban motifs in Russian poetry have not yet become the subject of comprehensive investigation in terms of the evolution of poetic conceptualization of the world, the frequency, semantics and syntagmatics of the key lexemes — 'gorod' and 'grad'. Meanwhile, the analy­sis of the poetic, ethnic and linguistic picture of the world, closely connected with diachronic lexicology, phraseology and grammar, allows important conclusions concerning the history of the national semiosphere and conceptosphere based on the analysis of the works of outstanding representatives of culture and literature of a nation. In the article, the author analyzes the usage, frequency, valency potential, and the system of poetic senses of the lexemes 'gorod' and 'grad' using the poems of reformers of the Russian language and litera­ture of the 18th century — Kantemir, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, and, in com­pa­rative terms, against a wider temporal perspective, the preceding and subsequent texts of Rus­sian poetry. The lexeme 'grad' was often used in Classicist and Romantic poetry. From the 1830s onwards, it was used less frequently in its full version 'gorod'. The poets employed the lexemes 'grad' and 'gorod' to form tropes and figures of speech, striving to expand the tradi­tio­nal syntagmatics, especially in epithets. Lyrical texts retained sacred meanings and biblical allusions (sacred city, temple, heavenly garden, holy ‘vertograd’) in the development of urbanistic and battle themes.

Reference

Balashova, L. V., 2014. Russkaya metafora: proshloe, nastoyashchee, budushchee [Rus­sian metaphor: past, present, future]. Moscow (in Russ.).

Bukharkin, P. E., 2011. Mikhail Vasil'evich Lomonosov v istorii russkogo slova [Mi­khail Vasilyevich Lomonosov in the history of the Russian word]. St. Petersburg (in Russ.).

Dovgy, O. L., 2019. Strange Countries’ Naiv Amateur: Geography in A. Cante­mir’s Satires. Palimpsest: literaturovedcheskii zhurnal [Palimpsest: literary journal], 2, pp. 7—23 (in Russ.).

Dushechkina, E. V., 2003. “From Moscow to the Outskirts…”: (Formula of Rus­sia’s Extension). In: Ritoricheskaya traditsiya i russkaya literatura [Rhetorical Tradition and R­ussian Literature]. St. Petersburg, pp. 108—125 (in Russ.).

Dzhanumov, S. A., 2020. The Image of St. Petersburg in A. Pushkin’s Poem “The Bron­ze Horseman”. Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo oblastnogo universiteta. Se­riya: Russkaya filologiya [Bulletin of the Moscow Region State University. Series: Rus­sian Philology], 1, pp. 93—106 (in Russ.).

Ivanova, N. N. and Ivanova, O. E., 2004. Slovar' yazyka poezii (obraznyi arsenal russkoi liriki kontsa XVIII — nachala XX v.) [Dictionary of the language of poetry (a fi­gurative arsenal of Russian lyrics of the late 18th — early 20th centuries)]. Moscow (in Russ.).

Kozhevnikova, N. A., 2009. Constructions of the type “Luxury city, poor city”. In: Izbrannye raboty po yazyku khudozhestvennoi literatury [Selected works on the language of fiction]. Moscow, pp. 839—849 (in Russ.).

Lehan, R., 1998. The City in Literature. An intellectual and cultural history. Berkeley.

Lipchanskaya, I. V., 2012. The image of the city in postmodern literature: to the formulation of the question. Izvestiya Saratovskogo universiteta. Novaya seriya. Seriya: Filologiya. Zhurnalistika [Izvestiya of Saratov University. Philology. Journalism], 3, pp. 79—83 (in Russ.).

Nebol'sin, S. A., 2013. “Russian Phoenix”: Moscow in 1812 as a symbol of Russian and European poetry. Filologicheskaya regionalistika [Philological regional studies], 1 (9), pp. 7—22 (in Russ.).

Patroeva, N. V., 2021. The image of the temple in the collection of E. A. Boratyn­sky “Twilight” and the problem of composition. Filologicheskie nauki. Nauchnye doklady vysshei shkoly [Philological Sciences. Scientific reports of higher school], 3, pp. 52—58 (in Russ.).

Redkina, E. S. and Chernyak, V. D., 2018. Modern City Image in Newer Russian Poetry. Filologicheskii klass [Philological Class], 1 (51), pp. 109—114 (in Russ.).

Sazonova, L. I., 2006. Literaturnaya kul'tura Rossii. Rannee Novoe vremya [Literary culture of Russia. Early New Age]. Moscow (in Russ.).

Shukurov, Sh. M., 2017. Propaedeutics of the Temple. Temenological Reflection on the Book of Genesis. Voprosy vseobshchei istorii arkhitektury [Questions of the His­to­ry of World Architecture], 1 (8), pp. 9—18 (in Russ.).

Slovar' russkogo yazyka XI-XVII vv. [Dictionary of the Russian language of the XI—XVII centuries. Issue. 4 (G—D)], 1977. Moscow (in Russ.).

Slovar' russkogo yazyka XVIII veka [Dictionary of the Russian language of the XVIII century], 1984—1991. Leningrad (in Russ.).

Slovar' yazyka M. V. Lomonosova [Dictionary of the language of M. V. Lomonosov], 2011. St. Petersburg (in Russ.).

Slovar' yazyka russkoy poezii XX veka [Dictionary of the language of Russian poet­ry of the twentieth century], 2003. Moscow (in Russ.).

Smirnov, S. A., 2019. Urban Anthropology: Between Urbanism and Everyday Life. ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Problemy vizual'noy semiotiki [Praxema], 1 (19), pp. 13—31 (in Russ.).

Spengler, O., 1998. The soul of the city. In: Zakat Evropy. Ocherki morfologii mirovoi istorii [The decline of the West. Essays on the morphology of world history]. Moscow (in Russ.).

Williams, R., 2007. Metropolitan Perceptions and the Emergence of Modernism. In: Politics of Modernism: Against the New Conformists. London, pp. 37—48.