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Abstract:

The article is devoted to the analysis of the artistic content and the evolution of the poetic ideal in the works of S.A. Esenin in the 1910s: the subject of the study is both the poet’s lyrical works and his philosophical prose (the article “The Father’s Word”), as well as biblical poems. The peculiarity of the literary and philosophical toponym Rus in Esenin’s works as an ethical ideal and a symbol of a special national historical path, which is part of “God’s Providence”, is revealed. The polemical unity of Russia with the idyllic image of the indefinitely beautiful “there,” which came to Esenin from the literature of Romanticism, along with the mythologeme of the poet’s fateful path, is revealed. The conclusion is made about the influence of Symbolist aesthetics on Esenin’s understanding of art as a visionary experience that allows him to comprehend supersensual reality. By means of comparative analysis of A.A. Blok’s articles “Gogol’s Child” and S.A. Esenin’s “The Father’s Word”, the hypothesis that the image of Russia in N.V. Gogol was perceived by Esenin in Symbolist transcription is substantiated. The poem “Inonia” is considered as a transformation of the poetic ideal of Russia in the context of Esenin’s religious and philosophical aspirations.