The spatial hierarchy in the poetics of Anna Akhmatova: Ontological, mythological and psychological aspects

Abstract

Objectives: The article aims at understanding the role of the space and time categories in the artistic world of Anna Akhmatova. The problem is considered in ontological, mythological and psychological aspects. Methods: In terms of methodology the article is based on research of the Russian Acmeism as a literary movement and creative works of Anna Akhmatova as one of its leading poets. We perceive Acmeism within the limits of a system-typological approach - not as a static reality, but as a tendency of purposes and principles common to a number of authors. The analysis used sociocultural, biographical, cultural-historical and comparative-typological methods of research. Findings: Anna Akhmatova as a representative of Russian Acmeism in her polemics with Symbolists and with their characteristic loci, both abstract and generalized, focused her attention on the concept of real life, on the image-motive embodiment of time and space. The external space in the lyrics of Akhmatova includes three areas - the space of home, of the city, and the nature, each of which is characterized by the materiality and the Artifact. There is a gradual evolution of mythological connotations, the formation of the semiotic opposition "top - down" and accentuation of the vertical axis of natural coordinates of "heaven - earth". In the work of Anna Akhmatova dd.1930-1960-ies the disposition "top - down" remains, however the "top" begins to be associated with harmonious existence, and "bottom" - with death, grave. In those years the antique intertext starts to appear in her works, producing impression that the poet is going back to the origins of civilization, but it was associated with the Soviet ideology and its polytheistic pantheon headed by the "Father of all peoples". Novelty: The space-time bases of Anna Akhmatova's artistic world has been changing during her work, the transformation of semiotic opposition "top - bottom", a shift from the abstract to the tangible materiality, from the external to the mental.