A. E. Eremeev
Omsk Humanitarian Academy, Omsk, Russian Federation
Aesthetic and poetic functions of “Boris Godunov” tragedy by Alexander Pushkin
Abstract: There is no clear understanding of the architectonics of “Boris Godunov” tragedy by Alexander Pushkin in Russian literary criticism. The persistent tendency to see the dominant scenic principle in the tragedy prevailed and it led to the evolutionary processes misunderstanding in Pushkin’s work and thus in Russian literature as a whole. In modern research thought, both aesthetic and poetic functions of Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov” are considered very contradictory. Their range fluctuates from the categorical scenic character of the work to non-scenic poetics. Thus far the problem of the tragedy final remains unresolved due to the established opinion that the last phrases belonging to the author are stage directions, and not an open manifestation of the author’s consciousness. The question of the content of these phrases is also not fully disclosed, which distorts the moral and aesthetic integrity of the tragedy. Opening “new worlds”, Pushkin proceeded primarily from Goethe’s “Faust”, more than from Shakespeare’s dramatic system. The author deliberately moves away from the forms of high poetry developed in Russian literature of the 18th century, creating a new aesthetic quality of off-stage drama, combining white iambic pentameter with prose. Pushkin reflecting the events of the distant past, setting himself the task of capturing the spirit of the times creates a work that is unique in its structure, combining features of fiction and documentary historical narration. The synthesis of the personal emotional experience of the heroes i.e. Godunov, Pimen, the Impostor, Marina and the historical existential awareness of the era, keeping these factors in balance, comprehending the meaning of what is happening due to this balance is a unique principle of unfolding the dramatic narrative of a tragedy. The meaning of being is revealed in the images-arguments. Truth is not only comprehended in the process of dramatic action, but is presented in the form of rhetorical comprehension of life. Pushkin, introducing the rhetorical principle, creates a universal situation, prompting one to think about the essence of the phenomenon. In the tragic experience of Pushkin, there is not just an appeal to events and incidents that belong to history and captured in documents, legends, chronicles, annals, but the acquisition of a special author’s position, the desire to give the content of the historical era through the logic of the development of a specific human image. In the artistic structure of the tragedy, a view arises not from within the narrative, where individual participants in the events are present with their reaction to what is happening, but a look from the outside of the depicted one, coming from the author-creator, who comprehends not only the heroes of the century, but also the century itself. From this we can conclude that the final phrases “The people are silent in horror” and “The people are silent”, where the word “silent” is highlighted by Pushkin in a special font, are not the remarks, but meaningfully complete, very important, if not the most important phrases, organically woven into the text of the tragedy and aimed not at dramatic impact as in the work itself intended for the stage, but at the artistic perception of the reader, prompted to spiritual catharsis. In the tragedy “Boris Godunov”, Pushkin develops the criteria for a new Russian drama — a non- stage tragedy. On the basis of the synthesis of the historical, philosophical and moral-aesthetic principles, a special way of depicting a person, people and history in their dialectical unity is created.
Keywords: A. Pushkin, Boris Godunov tragedy, architectonics, drama for reading (Lesedrama), dramatization, non- stage drama, catharsis.
Paper submitted: August 26, 2021.
For citation: Eremeev A. E. (2021) Aesthetic and poetic functions of “Boris Godunov” tragedy by Alexander Pushkin.
Russian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 15, no. 4, p. 8–20 DOI: 10.17238/issn1998-5320.2021.15.4.1.
