2018 №4 (61) Article 14

Bay Yan

THE ROAD MOTIF IN THE TITLE AND THE PLOT OF THE POEM “LITTLE ROAD”

UDC 821.161.1-1.09«19»

The article investigates the poetics of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s early poem “Little Road”. It analyzes the imagery, symbolism, spatial and temporal structures of the poem, which shape its structural and typological paradigm. The analysis focuses on the title of the poem, its subtitles, chapter titles, epigraphs, etc., as well as the structure of verse. To comment on the motif of road, the article analyzes the symbols used by the author, taking into consideration the autobiographical character of the poem and its historic relativity. The poem “Little Road” reflects Solzhenitsyn’s worldview of his concentration camp period. Solzhenitsyn said that his “Little Road” was a novel in verse and that it symbolically depicted a road which had already been traversed and which, at the same time, was a road to the future. Solzhenitsyn’s “Little Road” designates the beginning of the writer’s creative search, it introduces the concepts of Orthodox Christianity, morality and spirituality into his other works. The images of roads created by the writer reflect his lyrical heroes’ life paths and their personal growth, the fate of the country and the people. All stylistic devices used by Solzhenitsyn are aimed at revealing this multifaceted image.

road motif; road imagery; semantics of the title; autobiographical beginning; author’s notes; poetic structure

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