“The Demon” by Eugene Milkeev: Text and Context (To the Phenomenon of the Minor Poets in National Literature)

About the authors:

Sergey A. Komarov, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Professor, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; vitmark14@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4506-4027

Sergey S. Pyatkov, Postgraduate Student, Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, University of Tyumen; eLibrary AuthorID, sergey-spirit72@yandex.ru

Abstract:

The research of the evolution and correlation of the phenomena of different types of authors within the national literature is one of the primary aims of contemporary philology. It requires searching for the methodological tools. A Siberian poet Eugene Milkeev (1815-1845), whose literary heritage is only beginning to be researched, in his poem “The Demon” (1842) fixes the demonic complex, focusing on the development of this theme in the poetry, adding to the poetics of his text a number of individual artistic decisions.

This article analyzes literary phenomena that denote the genesis of demonic elements in the text of Siberian poet. It is found that, while in search of individual imagery and unconsciously guided by the artistic and aesthetic findings of Pushkin and Lermontov, Milkeev creates a heterogeneous image of the demon in his text. It combines the demon’s objectification as the bearer of a certain consciousness (the biblical tradition) and its immanence to the inner world of the object, the bearer of another consciousness (ancient tradition).

This article fixes the correlation of the processes taking place in the subject-object structure of the verse and prose texts of Russian writers of the 19^th century generation.

References:

1. Blok А. 1934. “Primechaniya k izbrannym sochineniyam Lermontova” [Notes to Lermontov’s “The Best”]. In: Blok А. Sobranie sochineniy v dvenadtsati tomakh. Vol. 11. pp. 465-471. Leningrad: Izdatelstvo pisateley v Leningrade.
2. Bocharov S. 1999. “Iz istorii ponimaniya Pushkina” [From the History of Pushkin’s Understanding]. In: Bocharov S. Syuzhety russkoy literatury. pp. 227-263. Moscow: Yazyki russkoy kultury.
3. Vatsuro V. 2000. “K genezisu pushkinskogo ‘Demona’” [To the Genesis of Pushkin’s “The Demon”]. In: Vatsuro V. Pushkinskaya pora, pp. 128-134. Saint-Petersburg: Akademicheskiy proekt.
4. Еrmolenko S. 1996. Lirika lermontova zhanrovye protsess [Lyric by Lermontov: Genre Processes]. Yekaterinburg: Izdatelstvo uralskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo instituta.
5. Zhirmunskiy V. 1978. Bayron i Pushkin. Pushkin i zapadnye literatury [Byron and Pushkin. Pushkin and Western Literature]. Leningrad: Nauka.
6. Zhuravleva A. 2002. Lermontov v russkoy literature. Problemy poetiki [Lermontov in Russian Literature. Problems of Poetics]. Moscow: Progress-traditsiya.
7. Komarov S. 2015. “K 200-letiyu P. P. Ershova. Predyubileynye zametki” [To the 200th Anniversary of P. P. Ershov. Notes]. Literaturnaya ucheba, vol. 1 (January — February), pp. 82-104. 
8. Komarov S. 2016. “Nasledie pisatelya i sovremennyy urok (navstrechu Petru Ershovu)” [The Legacy of the Writer and the Modern Lesson (Towards Peter Ershov)]. In: Komarov S, Lagunova O. Literatura sibiri: missiya, etnichnost, aksiologiya, pp. 183-188. Tyumen: Izdatelstvo tyumenskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta.
9. Komarov S., Pyatkov S. 2014. “‘Smertnomu’ i ‘Zvezdochka’ E. L. Milkeeva: aksiologiya i poetika teksta kak element literaturnogo landshafta” [“To Mortal” and “Asterisk” E. L. Milkeeva: Axiology and Poetics of the Text as an Element of the Literary Landscape]. Proceedings of the 4th International Research Conference “Ekologiya yazyka na perekrestke nauk” in 2 vols. Vol. 2, pp. 78-84. Tyumen: Izdatelstvo tyumenskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta.
10. Komarov S., Pyatkov S. 2014. “Tvorchestvo tobolskogo poeta E. L. Milkeeva: liricheskiy subekt v kontekste hudozhestvennogo tselogo” [Creativity of E. L. Milkeev: Lyrical Subject in the Context of the Artistic Whole]. Vestnik IGPI, pp. 12-16.
11. Korovin V. 1973. Tvorcheskiy put M. Yu. Lermontova [The Creative Path M. Yu. Lermontov]. Moscow: Prosveshchenie.
12. Koshemchuk T. 2008. “‘Moy Demon’ v russkoy lirike: opyt poznaniya vnutrennego cheloveka v poeticheskoy antropologii klassicheskogo perioda [“My demon” in Russian Lyrics: The Experience of Knowing the Inner Man in the Poetic Anthropology of the Classical Period]. Problemy istoricheskoy poetiki, no 8, pp. 275-295.
13. Kreknina L. 1997. Khristiansko-mifologicheskaya traditsiya v russkoy literature 30-40-kh godov XIX veka [Christian-Mythological Tradition in the Russian Literature of the 30-40s of the 19th Century]. Tyumen: UTMN Publishing House. 
14. Lapteva S. 2010. “Tainstvo ‘bezobraznoy krasoty’ lermontovskiy demonov” [Sacrament of the “Ugly Beauty” Lermontov’s Demons]. Proceedings of the 3rd All-Russian Research Conference “Lermontovskie chteniya — III”, pp. 30-40. Yekaterinburg: Izdatelstvo uralskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo instituta.
15. Litovskaya M. 1999. “Feniks poet pered solntsem”: fenomen Valentina Kataeva [“Phoenix Sings before the Sun”: The Phenomenon of Valentin Kataev]. Yekaterinburg: Izdatelstvo uralskogo universiteta.
16. Markovich V. 1982. I. S. Turgenev i russkiy realisticheskiy roman XIX veka (30 50-e gody) [I. S. Turgenev and the Russian Realistic Novel of the 19th Century (30-50s)]. Leningrad: Izdatelstvo leningradskogo universiteta.
17. Milkeev E. 2010. Stihotvoreniya. Poemy. Pisma [Rhymes. Poems. Letters]. Tobolsk: Vozrozhdenie tobolska.
18. Nolman L. 1973. “‘Ot “Demona’ Pushkina k ‘Demonu’ Nekrasova” [From Pushkin’ “Demon” to Nekrasov’s “Demon”]. In: K istorii russkogo romantizma, pp. 386-419. Moscow: Nauka.
19. Оslina E. 1985. “Vzaimodeystvie liro-epicheskih zhanrov v tvorchestve M. Yu. Lermontova” [Synergy of Lyrical and Epic Ganres in M. Yu. Lermontov’s Work]. Cand. Sci. (Philol.) diss. Moscow.
20. Pyatkov S. 2014. “Romanticheskoe soznanie v poetike maloy stihovoy formy: opyt E. L. Milkeeva” [Romantic Consciousness in Poetry of a Small Verse Form: The Experience of E. L. Milkeev]. In: Ot teksta k kontekstu: nauchnyy zhurnal, pp. 147-152. Ishim: Izdatelstvo IGPI im. P. P. Ershova.
21. Pyatkov S. 2015. “Stihotvornye teksti P. P. Ershova i E. L. Milkeeva: ekologichnost yazyka religioznogo soznaniya” [Poetic Texts by P. P. Ershov and E. L. Milkeev: Ecological Compatibility of the Language of Religious Consciousness]. In: Belozerova N. (ed.). 2015. Ekologiya yazyka na perekrestke nauk. pp. 250-259. Tyumen: Vector Book.
22. Tynyanov Yu. 1977. “O literaturnoy evolyutsii” [About Literary Evolution]. In: Tynyanov Yu. 1977. Poetika. Istoriya literatury. Kino, pp. 270-281. Moscow: Nauka.
23. Fedoseenko N. G. 2014. “Lermontovskaya romanticheskaya poema: svoeobrazie zhanra” [Lermontov’s Romantic Poem: The Originality of the Genre]. In: Tvorchestvo M. Yu. Lermontova v kontekste sovremennoy kultury, pp. 104-121. RHGA.