Subtexts of Osip Mandelstam’s "Ode" to Stalin: a linguist’s commentaries

IF 0.2 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
V. Moskvin
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the semantic structure of Mandelstam’s poem “Ode” using contextual, intertextual and consituative analysis. As the study showed, three types of complexity of nominations lead to significant difficulties in the adequate understanding of the “Ode”: (1) motivational complication, the sources of which are semantic transfers, primarily metaphor. One of the most striking images of the “Ode” is formed by an expanded metaphor based on the comparison of a poet with an artist, a pen with charcoal, which the artist takes for the highest praise to the addressee of the “Ode”. The “duality” of this image that Joseph Brodsky indicated can be explained if we take into account the fact that the line “If I took coal for the highest praise” contains an oxymoron (perhaps with an intertextual allusion to coal in Horace’s Satires), i.e. conceals a contrasting characteristic; (2) intertextual complication. An axiologically significant element of the subtext of the “Ode” is the allusion to the song “Rus” in Nekrasov’s poem Who Is Happy in Russia?; this allusion is expressed metrically and lexically. The song is built on contrasts, which gives reason to correlate this allusion with the above oxymoron as a figure of contrast; (3) consituative complication. The style of the “Ode”, which approaches oratorical and even newspaper, should be considered as consituatively marked, since such a convergence was characteristic of revolutionary and post-revolutionary poetry. Among the facts testifying to the dialectical nature of Mandelstam’s view of what was happening in the USSR, is not only the open statement “Debtor is stronger than the claim”, but also the subtexts confirming its sincerity: (a) a reference to the song “Rus”, one of the fragments of which says that power and untruth do not get along; (b) the likening of Stalin to Prometheus in chains; (c) the above oxymoron. This semantic correlation allows asserting that the text contains elements of two-sided argumentation in relation to the assessment of the activities of the USSR’s leader; for the Stalin era, especially after the XVII Congress of the CPSU(b), the Congress of Winners (1934), this position of the author was politically and ideologically unacceptable. The fact that Mandelstam decided on such an argument confirms the validity of his evaluation as a poet who was unable to compromise in his work. The “Ode” is considered a palinody in relation to the poem “We Live Without Feeling the Country Beneath Our Feet ...” (1933). In the light of the above facts, it would be more accurate to talk about incomplete palinody, since the unambiguously negative evaluation is replaced in the “Ode” by not unambiguously positive, but dialectical, possibly with the prophetic element – power and untruth do not get along.
曼德尔施塔姆《斯大林颂》的潜台词:一位语言学家的评论
本文的目的是通过语境分析、互文分析和构式分析来重构曼德尔施塔姆的诗歌《赋》的语义结构。研究表明,三种类型的提名复杂性导致了对“颂歌”的充分理解的重大困难:(1)动机复杂性,其来源是语义迁移,主要是隐喻。《咏》中最引人注目的意象之一,是通过诗人与艺术家的比较,形成了一种扩展的隐喻,即一支笔与炭笔,这是艺术家对《咏》收信人的最高赞美。约瑟夫·布罗茨基指出的这一形象的“二重性”可以解释,如果我们考虑到这样一个事实:“如果我把煤作为最高的赞美”这句话包含了一个矛盾修辞法(也许是贺拉斯讽刺诗中对煤的互文典故),即隐藏了一个对比的特征;(2)互文复杂性。《颂歌》潜台词的一个价值论意义上的重要元素是对涅克拉索夫的诗《谁在俄罗斯快乐?》中的歌曲《罗斯》的典故。这个典故在度量和词汇上都有体现。这首歌是建立在对比的基础上的,这就有理由将这一典故与上述矛盾修饰法联系起来作为对比的形象;(3)构成性并发症。《赋》的风格接近于演说甚至报纸,应该被认为是构成标记,因为这种融合是革命和后革命诗歌的特征。在证明曼德尔施塔姆对苏联正在发生的事情的看法的辩证性质的事实中,不仅有“债务人比索赔更强大”的公开声明,而且还有证实其诚意的潜台词:(a)提到歌曲“罗斯”,其中一个片段说权力和谎言不能共存;(b)把斯大林比作戴着镣铐的普罗米修斯;(c)上述矛盾修饰法。这种语义相关性允许断言文本包含与苏联领导人活动评估相关的双面论证元素;在斯大林时代,特别是在苏共第十七次代表大会(1934年)之后,作者的这一立场在政治上和意识形态上都是不可接受的。曼德尔施塔姆做出这样的论断,证实了他作为一个在工作中无法妥协的诗人的评价是正确的。这首颂歌被认为是一首与“我们生活在没有感受我们脚下的国家……””(1933)。鉴于上述事实,更准确的说法是不完整的palinody,因为在《颂》中,明确的负面评价被并非明确的积极评价所取代,而是辩证的,可能带有预言性的元素——权力和不真实不能相处。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.40
自引率
50.00%
发文量
0
期刊介绍: Tomsk State University Journal of Philology was established with the aim of: - publishing the papers and reviews on the topical issues of modern philology: linguistics, literary studies, communication studies; - promoting the development of theoretical and practical research in the field of socio-humanitarian knowledge; - forging links among scholars from different regions of Russia and other countries. Tomsk State University Journal of Philology is an independent research journal that welcomes submissions from across the world.
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