“Lunar New Year” by A. Parkau: cultural memory

About the authors:

Anna A. Arustamova, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Associate Professor, Leading Researcher, Department of Russian Literature, Perm State University, Perm, Russia
aarustamova@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3079-0253

Gao Chunyu, Professor, Department of Russian Language, Qiqihar University, Qiqihar, China
liubochunyu@163.com, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2877-6051

Boris V. Kondakov, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Professor, Head of the Center for East Asian Studies, Perm State University, Perm, Russia
kondakovb@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1727-8047

Abstract:

This article considers the Russian émigré literature in China in the aspect of implementing the principles of intercultural communication and interaction between the cultures of Russia and China. Scholars began to study it in the 1990s, and currently the work of many Russian writers from Harbin and Shanghai remains unexplored.
Features of the interaction of national traditions are analyzed in the poem “Lunar New Year” (Chinese New Year) by the poet of the Russian diaspora — A. Parkau, published in the poetic book Unquenchable Fire. Her artistic world still is not in the focus of the scholars.
The poem “Lunar New Year,” included in the Bitter Paths cycle, is the artistic description of the Chinese holiday. Its content is determined by Chinese culture, and its artistic form is determined by the Russian poetic tradition. The article traces the connections of the poem with Chinese culture and philosophy, on the one hand, and with the contexts of the Russian poetry of the 19th century, expressed in poetic meters, on the other.
The authors of the article examine the compositional and semantic principles of organizing a book of poems and come to the conclusion that the analyzed poem is included simultaneously in several cycles — calendar, reflecting the life of nature, and social, expressing the existential ideas of emigrants, expressed with the motives of loneliness, and fear of death, among others.

References:

Arustamova, A. A. (2023). Literary lilacs: to the specifics of the estate topos in poetry and prose of Russian émigré literature. Philology in the 21^st century, (2), 45–54. [In Russian]

Arustamova, A. A., & Kondakov, B. V. (2021). Across the Ocean: Essays on the Literature of Russian Emigration in China and the USA (1920–1930s). Perm State National Research University. [In Russian]

Bashmakova, T. B. (2009). Features of impressionism in the poetic handwriting of A. Parkau. In A. A. Zabiyako, & G. V. Efendieva (Eds.), Russian Harbin, Captured in the Word (pp. 75–81). Amur State University. [In Russian]

Belousova, O. O., & Dashevskaya, O. A. (2014). Cycle and book poetics in modern literary criticism. Tomsk State University Journal, (389), 6–14. [In Russian]

Bogoderova, A. A. (2021). Intertextual references to Russian literature of the 19^th and early 20^th c. in the poetry of Shanghai emigrant of the 1930–1940s. Critique and Semiotics, (2), 359–382. [In Russian]

Gasparov, M. L. (2012). Meter and Meaning. Fortuna EL. [In Russian]

Gumilyov, N. (1919) Poetic translations. In K. Chukovsky, & N. Gumilev, Principles of Literary Translation (pp. 25–30). World Literature. [In Russian]

Darwin, M. N. (1987). Poetics of the Lyrical Cycle: (Twilight by E. A. Baratynsky). KemSU. [In Russian]

Darwin, M. N. (1983). The Problem of the Cycle in the Study of Lyrics. KemSU. [In Russian]

Darwin, M. N. (1988). Russian Lyric Cycle: Problems of History and Theory: Based on the Material of Poetry of the First Half of the 19^th c. Publishing house of Krasnoyarsk university. [In Russian]

Zholkovsky, A. K. (2023). Toward the semantics of trochaic pentameter. On one arch plot of X5zhmzhm. Russian Studies in Literature, (3), 107–140. Retrieved Sep. 2, 2024, from https://voplit.ru/article/k-semantike-pyatistopnogo-horeya-ob-odnom-arhisyuzhete-h5zhmzhm/ [In Russian]

Lie-zi (Pre-Qin Period). (2018). China Bookstore Publishing House. [= (先秦) 列子: «列子», 北京: 中国书店出版社, 2018.228].[In Chinese]

Lotman, Yu. M. (1996). About Poets and Poetry: Analysis of Poetic Text. Iskusstvo-SPBPubl. [In Russian]

Lysenko, L. A. (2014). I. Shmelyov’s poetic novel “The Summer of the Lord” as an encyclopedia of Russian Orthodox holidays. Bulletin of NVGU, (4), 71–76. https://vestnik.nvsu.ru/2311-1402/article/view/49374/33205 [In Russian]

Lyapina, L. E. (1999). Cyclization in Russian Literature of the 19^th c. Institute of Chemistry of Saint Petersburg State University [In Russian]

Magomedova, D. M. (2003). On the genre principle of cyclization of the “book of poetry” at the turn of the 19^th–20^th c. In M. N. Darvin (Ed.), European Lyrical Cycle. Historical and Comparative Study. (pp. 183–196). RSUH. [In Russian]

Miroshnikova, O. V. (2003). The final lyrical book of the last third of the 19^th c. as a variant of the cyclic meta-genre. Izvestia. Ural Federal University Journal. Ser. 2. Humanities and Arts, (28), 83–93. [In Russian]

Miao Hui. (2015). Peculiarities of representation of the Chinese culture in the Russian emigrant literature in China. Historical, Philosophical, Political and Law Sciences, Culturology and Study of Art. Issues of Theory and Practice, (3), 136–140. [In Russian]

Parkau, A. [Nilus, A. P.]. (1937). Unquenchable Fire: Poems. Nobel Press. [In Russian]

Parkau, A. [Nilus, A. P.]. (1942). Native Country. Word. [In Russian]

Sapogov, V. A. (1968). Lyrical cycle or lyric poem in the works of A. Blok. In N.A. Trifonov (Ed.), Russian Literature of the 20^th c. (Pre-October Period) (pp. 174–189). Tula State University. [In Russian]

Sapogov, V. A. (1986). Plot in the lyrical cycle. In L. M. Tsilevich (Ed.) et al., Plot Composition in Russian Literature (pp. 90–97). Daugavpils university. [In Russian]

Slobodchikov, V. A. (2005). About the sad fate of exiles... Harbin. Shanghai. Tsentrpoligraf. [In Russian]

Tyupa, V. I. (2001). Analytics of the Fiction: (An Introduction to Literary Analysis). Labyrinth. [In Russian]

Fomenko, I. V. (2003). Book of poems: myth or reality? In M. N. Darvin (Ed.), European Lyrical Cycle. Historical and Comparative Study (pp. 64–73). RSUH. [In Russian]

Fomenko, I. V. (1992). Lyrical Cycle: The Formation of the Genre, Poetics. Tver state university. [In Russian]

Fomenko, I. V. (1984). On the Poetics of the Lyrical Cycle. KSU. [In Russian]

He Tingting. (2021). Scenes of the life of a Chinese city in the poetry of A. Parkau. In Scientific Initiative of Foreign Students and Graduate Students: in 2 vols. (Vol. 2, pp. 177–179). Publishing House of National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University. [In Russian]

Cui Lu. (2018). “Chinese text” and the emigrant myth in the poetry of the Russian Far Eastern emigration of the 1920s–1950s. Tomsk State University Journal, (430), 45–51. [In Russian]

Qu Xueping. (2012). Research On Russian Expatriate Women Poets in China and their Works. Journal of Qiqihar University, (4), 75-79. [= 曲雪平. 论中国俄罗斯侨民女诗人及作品[J]. 齐齐哈尔大学学报, 2012(4):75-79]. [In Chinese]

Qu Xueping. (2012). Search for Lilac: a study of the creativity of Russian emigrant poetesses who lived in the East. [Dissertation, Qiqihar University]. [= 曲雪平. 探索紫丁香--对摇曳于东方的俄侨女诗人的研究. 齐齐哈尔大学硕士毕业论文, 2012:47]. [In Chinese]

Zabiyako, A. A., & Efendieva, G. V. (Eds.). (2008). “A quarter of a century of refugee fate...”: the artistic world of Russian lyricism in Harbin. Amur State University. [In Rissian]

Zhu Xi (Dynasty Song). (2018). Zhu Xi’s Sayings: in 8 vols. Chongwen Bookstore. [= (宋)朱熹: 朱子语类(共8册), 武汉: 崇文书局, 2018.2612]. [In Chinese]

Zhuangzi (Pre-Qin Period). (2017). Zhuang-zi. People’s of Jiangxi. [= (先秦) 庄子: «庄子», 南昌: 江西人民出版社, 2017.527]. [In Chinese]

Jakobson R. (1979). Selected Writings. Vol. 5: On Verse, Its Masters and Explores. Published de Gruyter Mouton.