THE IMAGE OF A CHILD IN THE LYRICS OF IRINA KNORRING

Abstract

Object of research – an image of the own child in lyrics of the poetess of the first wave of the Russian emigration Irina Knorring. Irina Knorring’s lyrics are autobiographical. The main theme – is the family, love for her husband-poet Yuri Sofiev and son Igor. Motherhood is the salvation in the tragic, joyless emigre existence and the only meaning of life in a foreign land. The sources of the analysis were diaries and biographical materials. I. Knorring’s lyrics represent everyday life and banality. Irina Knorring’s close attention to everyday life is explained by both literary and personal factors. Diabetes mellitus caused the poetess to move away from the poetic circle, she led a closed life, limited only by “household chores”. The poems present unattractive images of the spouses Knorring. In the little son, on the contrary, external beauty and moral purity are emphasized. Often the lyrical heroine describes a sleeping son. She likes to watch him lying in the cradle and wants to extend her son’s childhood. The fear of the empty nest-house is connected with the reminder of the approaching death. The poems show a close spiritual connection between a mother and a young son, unconditional and sacrificial love for a child, which is stronger than demanding love for her husband. The results of the study allow us to conclude that the lyrics of Knorring developed in line with the classical Russian poetry of the XVIII–XIX centuries, in which motherhood is the main purpose of women. In the poems depicting domestic problems, the objectivity and the materiality Knorring emphasizes the proximity to acmeism. It also fits into the émigré poetics of the Paris note with themes of doom and pessimism, wandering and disease. The lyrics of Knorring shows the unsettled life of the emigrant, whose fate is complicated and saved by the care of his son. The presented material can be used in University teaching when reading courses on literature of Russian abroad.