The semiotics of silence; or, how differently it was interpreted by Mallarmé and Mandelstam

Abstract

The article discusses the category of silence and its unique realization in the works of S. Mallarmé and O. Mandelstam. In their search for a new language of the new era, Romantic poets of Europe, and later the Symbolists, promoted the categories of rhythm, suggestiveness, melodiousness, and silence. E. Dmitrieva analyzes Mallarmé’s essays and poems, including ‘A Throw of the Dice’ (which anticipates the poetics of the late 20th c. with its unusual typographic layout), and the poem’s visual interpretation by O. Redon, who decodes its internal meanings with a cryptogram ‘quiet-silence-death.’ The second part of the article is devoted to Mandelstam’s poetry. According to Dmitrieva, the poet’s reputation as a Russian Mallarmé almost certainly originates in the Western studies of Mandelstam’s oeuvre. In order to substantiate the analogy, his scholars often point out the two poets’ fondness for suggestiveness, the magic of words, and the opportunities offered by their liberal combination, seen as a special form of ‘associative symbolism.’ Dmitrieva follows the progression of this method in Mandelstam’s poetry and examines several verses that reveal distinct affinities with Mallarmé.