Evolution of the foreword form in the poems by V. S. Soloviev and V. Ya Bryusov

About the authors:

Ekaterina A. Cherkasova,

Cand. Sci. (Philol.), Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; cherkasova85@gmail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8592-7109

Angelica R. Chubrikova, Master Student, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; achubrikova@internet.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8828-0766

Abstract:

This article considers the genre features of authorial forewords in three books of poetry by V. S. Soloviev and nine by V. Ya. Bryusov from the standpoint of ideological, thematic, and structural evolution. Soloviev, relying on the other 19th c. Russian poets’ experience in composing prefaces, develops form- and content-specific components of prefaces in his three lifetime poems editions. Being both a younger contemporary of the lyricists who created and continued the benchmark examples of Russian poetry, and a teacher for the poets of the emerging poetic movement (Symbolism), Soloviev deliberately builds his prefaces as an ideological link connecting the two poetic generations. The prefaces in Soloviev’s and Bryusov’s books play important roles as both poets were contemporaries in a creative dialog actively working to understand the Russian poetical traditions and to identify its best examples, as well as to formulate the new poetry’s tasks. The article presents Bryusov’s innovative solutions and artistic findings as the author of ten prefaces to nine books of poetry. The key features include broadening of the genre form, expansion of the list of addressees, and transformation of the address’s purpose regarding the historic and literary context. Solovyov and Bryusov construct their prefaces to form a special metatextual unity, necessary, among other things, to create a unique form of dialog with their contemporaries and followers, as well as an important individual authorial statement about the goals and tasks of art and the creator.

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