“I lived in Moscow, the capital of the world…”: Moscow in the poetic geography of Alexander Galich
- DOI
- 10.5922/pikbfu-2023-2-8
- Pages
- 85-97
Abstract
The author considers a lengthy program of research (that will be continued in a series of articles) on the artistic geography (geopoetics) of Alexander Galich, one of the brightest representatives of the author’s (bard’s) song of the 1960s—1970s. The construction of Galich poetic world actualizes the opposition of the center / periphery, while Moscow (or another capital replacing it) acts as the frequency expression of the structural center, and the periphery can be represented as a) the Russian province, b) a place of memory, c) the space of otherness. This article is devoted to the description of Moscow as a component of this poetic system, the establishment of a circle of motives associated with Moscow, and their role in the Galich plot building. According to the conclusions, the capital in the artistic world of the poet, as a rule, has a negative connotation. In the poetic subsystem of Moscow, the motives of departure and arrival are emphasized, and the metropolitan space is primarily associated with the departure (exile) of the hero, and arrival or static stay in Moscow is morally devalued as the lot of a layman, a loser or a careerist. At the same time, Moscow is presented as the native, “home” space of the hero. Such a paradoxical negative assessment is associated with the idea of the world shattered as a result of historical catastrophes.