Aftertext as a system (case of Anna Akhmatova)

About the author:

Anna M. Menshchikova, Cand. Sci (Philol.), Associate Professor, Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, Ural Federal University (Ekaterinburg); menanman@inbox.ru; ORCID: 0000-0002-2084-9912

Abstract:

This article attempts to study Anna Akhmatova’s aftertext as a system of interrelated elements, determined by the artistic consciousness and creative strategy of the poet. The comparison of texts of various genres and the analysis of the contextual field in each case show that the poet intentionally created intersections at the levels of structure, plots, images from the autobiographical book of prose “Pages from the Diary”, as well as “Prose about the Poem”, epistolary heritage, and “Notebooks”. The variability of the studied texts, which often exist on the principle of “duality”, as well as the interpenetrability of the boundaries of aftertext forms and Akhmatova’s artistic heritage are the most vivid manifestations of aftertext’s poetics. The latter shows the author’s desire to express the global unity. Reflecting on the tragic fate of the generation of the “non-calendar 20th century”, exposing false images of her own fate and asserting genuine ones in their place, passing a verdict on her own epoch and consolidating the memory of contemporaries, Akhmatova brings together aftertext and her later works. Therefore, the forms of self-reflection, which developed in parallel with the works of the 1950s and 1960s, reveal the property of fundamental incompleteness.

References:

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