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Abstract:

This article examines the antinomic position of lyric poetry within Bakhtin’s concept of dialogue. In particular, it highlights the contradiction between the thesis of the monologism of the lyric utterance and the understanding of dialogue as a linguistic and ontological universal. Based on the work of L.A. Gogotishvili, it is demonstrated that this contradiction arises from a categorical error — the failure to differentiate levels of dialogue: monologism and polyphonism are not opposed to dialogue but rather represent polar forms of its realization. The monologism of lyric poetry, therefore, lies in the achievement of “poetic unity”, which the poet attains by eliminating others’ intentions from their own voice. In this context, the article pays particular attention to the analysis of Symbolist texts (by Innokenty Annensky and Alexander Blok), which exemplify tendencies within lyric poetry toward the appropriation of another’s word. The question is raised as to why Bakhtin, while acknowledging the existence of such exceptions in lyric poetry, nevertheless persistently adhered to the thesis of its monological nature. The conclusion argues that Bakhtin’s consideration of lyric poetry in its “stylistic limit” is conditioned by his aesthetic and philosophical views: this extreme form of lyric poetry is rooted in agreement as a condition of its existence and, paradoxically, proves to be closer than polyphonic genres to the “ideal limit of dialogue”, the central category of which is “choral agreement”.