Dialogue Of Cultures And Its National Dominants In The Style Of V. Khlebnikov

Abstract

Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922) aimed at understanding and integration of world culture riches to find new synthesis that involves solving key issues of mankind history, culture and its future. In his works of fiction, articles on various subjects, mathematical calculations, he sought to combine in a new mythology and a single "star language" theory pantheons, symbols, creativity of peoples living on different continents, representing different civilizations, in general – all humanity. This was especially evident in a number of his works and articles of the late 1910s and early 1920s: “Tuda, tuda…”, “Azy iz uzy. Edinaya kniga”, “Zangezi”, “Nasha osnova”, etc. On the other hand, "worldliness", increased in the last period of his work, focus on dialogue of cultures and their new synthesis were accompanied by other processes in the writer’s creativity and outlook. The picture of the united humanity conceivable by him was actually based on the discoveries of Russian culture, on the dominant cultural style of Russian Silver Age, and the world language was based on the Russian language and literature, including his own creative work. The worldliness, or "tendency to world-wide responsiveness" (F. Dostoevsky) of Khlebnikov was accompanied by strengthening of his creative thinking national orientation, which is found not in the sloganistic nationalist-chauvinist way, as in some of his early articles, but in sacrifice and a deep involvement in the fate of the Fatherland.

Keywords: Velimir Khlebnikovdialogue of culturesnational dominants

Introduction

Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922) was a member of Budetlyane (one of the first futurism groups), "King of Time", one of the main poets of the Russian Silver Age, a writer, thinker, futurist (in his own words), "a warrior of the kingdom that did not appear". All his exceptionally intense creative life he worked to achieve new opportunities for humanity, for the sake of finding unity, which is not possible without dialogue of cultures implementation as well as their synthesis, that was directly or indirectly included into many of his works and articles. This area of Khlebnikov’s active creative work manifests Western European traditions and "universal sympathy tendency" of the Russian people, as Dostoevsky (1984) mentioned in his “Pushkin speech” (p. 136). Khlebnikov also strived for comprehensive, primarily literary synthesis as the most important cultural trait of Russia's Silver Age, that is pointed out in the works by Mineralova (2004). In his search for synthesis V. Khlebnikov was independent and original, although in his early period he was obviously influenced by the ideas of V. Ivanov, one of the largest theorists of arts and dialogue of cultures synthesis, who productively addressed antiquity style in his works.

Problem Statement

V. Khlebnikov, a "citizen of the world", tried to invent a universal world “star” language, common to all the peoples of the Earth, regardless of traditions and cultural characteristics of a particular country. Sokolova (2019) highlights that “this 'universalization' most consistently manifested itself in the search for a 'universal' language in the texts of Khlebnikov, Joyce and Jolas, and was characterized by interlanguage synthesis” (p. 256). By doing this, as researchers of his work pointed out, he followed rationalistic philosophy tradition, in particular Descartes, although there were other milestones. In the policy article “Nasha osnova” (“Our basis”) Khlebnikov [2006] wrote: Esli b okazalos’, chto zakony prostyh tel azbuki odinakovy dlya sem’i yazykov, to dlya vsej etoj sem’i narodov mozhno bylo by postroit’ novyj mirovoj yazyk – poezd s zerkalami slov Moskva – New York (“If it turned out that the laws of simple alphabet bodies were the same for a linguistic family, then a new world language could be invented for the entire family of peoples – a train with words mirrors Moscow – New York”) (p. 168). However, Khlebnikov [2006] aimed at creating a unity of humankind cultural field and improving mutual understanding between people and nations. That’s why he suggested constructing world language not rationally, abstractly, conventionally, as philosophers and linguists did, but in a different way, carefully observing the “everyday” language.

In the poem “Tuda, tuda” (“There, there...”) that is said to be most distinctive in terms of dialogue of cultures and forms of its implementation in Khlebnikov’s style (Vasilev, 2015), according to manuscripts dating back to May 9, 1919, the poet appealed to utopia inherent in futurism (Potts, 2018), and created conversation between gods of different civilizations: Japanese, Chinese, Estonian, Indian, Native American, African, Norse, Semitic, Ancient European and others. This conversation constitutes a single “peaceful” as well as plot image, some sort of new mythology project: Tuda, tuda, gde Izanagi / Chitala “Monogatori” Perunu, / A Erot sel na koleni k Shang-Ti, / I sedoj hohol na lysoj golove / Boga pohodit na sneg, / Gde Amur tseluet Maa-Emu, / A Tien beseduet s Indroj, / Gde Yunona s Tsintekuatlem / Smotryat Korreddzhio / I voshistcheny Myril’o, / Gde Unkulunkulu i Tor / Igrayut mirno v shashki, / Oblokotyas’ na ruku, / I Hokkusaem voshischena / Astarta, - tuda, tuda! ("There, there, where Izanagi / Read “Monogatori” to Perun, / And Eros sat on the lap of Shang-Ti, / And a gray toupee on the bald head of / God is like snow, / Where Cupid kisses Maa-Emu / And Tien talks with Indra, Where Juno with Centeritem / Watch Correggio / And admire Murillo, Where Unkulunkulu and Thor / peacefully play checkers / Leaning on a hand, / And Hokusai admire / Astarte, – there, there!") (Khlebnikov, 2001, p. 51).

Arenzon and Duganov (2001) (the authors of notes to vol. 2 of the poet’s collected works) pointed out that "the picture of a peaceful gods’ assembly of different times and peoples... " (p. 512) can be compared with the satirical work by the ancient author Lucian "Dialogues of Gods" and with the poem “Religii” (“Religions”) by Verhaeren (1961) from the book “Bujnye sily” (“Tumultuous Forces”). For example, with this passage: Tam dlya Hrista Vulkan o nakoval’nyu b’yot / Moguchim molotom. Dovol’ny Satanoju / I Yagve i Ammon. Sdruzhilis’ mezh soboju / Privratniki nebes – apostol Pyotr i Tot (“There for Christ the volcano strikes the anvil / with a mighty hammer. Happy with Satan / are Yahweh and Ammon. Became friends with each other / Gatekeepers of heaven – the Apostle Peter and the Other”. The image Tuda, tuda (“There, there...”) that frames this poem is also distinctive. This “replay of the song of minions (“Dahin, dahin...”) in Goethe's novel “Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship” (vol. 3, ch. 1). According to F. Tyutchev who translated the song of minions, repetition turned into a “literary saying”; in the Russian poetic tradition it means the author wants “something that is vague and far away” (see, for example, in A. Maikov's poem “Alpine Glaciers” (1858): Tam, znayu, uzhas obitaet, i net lyudskogo tam sleda. – No serdtse tochno otvechaet na chej-to zov: Tuda! Tuda! (“There, I know, terror dwells, and there is no human trace. – But the heart is definitely responding to someone's call: “There! There!”) (Arenzon & Duganov, 2001, p. 512). However, Khlebnikov’s image is alien to both satirical dominant inherent in a number of works by Lucian about Olympic gods and symbolist-decadent touch of Verhaeren’s image, “reconciling”, and as if putting God (Yahweh) and Satan on the same level. Khlebnikov subtly and tactfully avoids biblical theme in creating this image, although in other works allusions to the Holy Scripture, the Orthodox calendar and Christian culture in general are abundantly present (Pavlovsky, 2019; Ryzhakov, 2019). W. Weststeijn, who wrote about perception of Khlebnikov's work by Aiga, underlined: “In the free verse of Khlebnikov, Majakovskij and Elena Guro Ajga hears the echo of Old Russian legends and the orthodox liturgy. Echoes of the orthodox liturgy we may also hear in Ajga’s poems, particularly when he makes one sound – generally the “a” – the image-symbol of an entire poem» (Weststeijn, 2016, p. 11).

Research Questions

Universal semantic plans of dialogue of cultures literary realization and Khlebnikov's synthetic linguophilosophical theory require further study. There are a number of questions that have already been discussed to some extent in scientific sources, for example, the links nature between futurism and the Baroque culture (Cecchini, 2019), and those that were not previously mentioned by scholars. They tackle the features of the poet's artistically expressed worldview, specifically (according to Sakulin’s terminology (1990)) characteristic features of his style, place and role of cultural synthesis focus, as well as extent to which emphasis on the “worldliness” and universality of the poet's figurative language, his theoretically modeled “star language” are rooted in the national culture. This conclusion about the national essence of Khlebnikov's creativity was made by Uspenskii on the material of B. Livshits's memoir “One and a Half-Eyed Sagittarius”: "Only a real Creator, vital and primordial, natural in its manifestations, can live according to the laws created by him. He may be incomprehensible to society because he violates accepted social norms, but whether people know it or not, he enriches the literary language and is, by his nature, a national poet. This is V. Khlebnikov" (Uspenkii, 2016, p. 91).

Purpose of the Study

To clarify the features implemented in the style of Khlebnikov’s dialogue of cultures and its role in the formation of a national tradition as the most visual imagery and declarative outline of the dialogue and associated synthesis (the poem “Tuda, tuda” (“There, there...”)), as well as linguophilosophical one, which has the same literary component, it is essential to refer to wider context of his creative work, more specifically, to some works in which the poet planned to include the quoted one – the poems “Azy iz uzy” (“The Basics from Bonds”) and “Ladomir”. It is important to find out to what extent and in what aspects Khlebnikov relies on national culture traditions in the field of language, art, and religion when creating a dialogue of cultures literary image, forming a single humanity myth and its basis in the form of linguophilosophical constructions.

Research Methods

The article relies on the following methods: comparative historical, typological, semantic-stylistic. Sakulin (1990) in his fundamental works on theoretical history of literature established its synthetic construction, which is centered on the work and the author, and one of the most important tasks is to create a scientific history of styles. The scholar paid special attention to the content aspects of the work, the study of form style and its wide connections with cultural environment and epoch style.

Findings

Conclusion

So, V. Khlebnikov was one of the most prominent representatives of the Russian Silver Age, a writer and thinker whose work was of a synthetic nature and solved not only, and sometimes not so much literary tasks, but other – philosophical, historiosophical, worldview problems in various periods of his activity. He paid special attention to cultural dialogue issues, formation of a new mythology associated with it, and a special, aimed at removing national differences, “star language”. One of his most characteristic works on this subject was the poem of 1919 “Tuda, tuda” (“There, there...”) with its main motif going back to I. V. Goethe and receiving a reinterpretation in Russian poetry of the XIX century. This text, containing a vivid image of different cultures and civilizations gods conversation, apparently the result of rethinking satirical dramatic works by Lucian, of Verhaeren's poems, and possibly other sources, aims at creating a universal, unified mythology for the whole world. Creation “The United Book” of humanity represents the result and at the same time a program of dialogue of cultures. No matter how abstract ideas and images of this kind may be, their detailed analysis shows a significant, and often key role of a national culture in their creation that needs overcoming in favor of unity and dialogue. The poem “Tuda, tuda” (“There, there...”), integrated into the poem “The Basis from the Bonds”, is placed in the Slavic and primarily Russian context through microcosm and macrocosm synthesis in the image of a lyric hero, as if holding the great Russian (European and Asian) rivers. The poem “Ladomir”, one of poet’s most studied works, which also included “Tuda, Tuda” (“There, there”), bears epoch cultural style imprint at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries with its settings for literary synthesis and mystery stylization. In this context, the utopia poem acquires new stylistic features: semantically not too definite aspiration to the dream is replaced by a spell-like beginning, an image of a magical action to transform the universe, the source and instrument of which was thought to be the Russian revolution. The dramatic poem “Gods”, which most consistently applied “gods language”, or in V. Khlebnikov’s case – abstruse language (zaumniy), the universal language basis, by the genre itself refers to popular culture. According to M. Gasparov, it represents “a gigantic riddle”, and from the point of view of literary speech, as highlighted by Y. Mineralova, is associated with the folk warlock. Finally, Khlebnikov's “star language”, which at first glance is extremely abstract and “in fact” implements a model of future mankind unity, is also largely based on Russian national culture traditions. Language and literature are characterized by repetitions of sound complexes, which in the context of the work receive a unique semantic reference close to the semantics of a separate “sound-substance”, which was interpreted by the poet as world language basis. In one of his last poems “Vshi tupo molilisya mne…” (“Lice stupidly prayed to me...”) (1921) V. Khlebnikov wrote: “Moj belyj bozhestbennyj mozg / Ya otdal, Rossiya, tebe: / Bud’ mnoyu, bud’ Khlebnikovym. / Svai vbival v um naroda i osi, / Sdelal ya svajnyuj hatu / “My – budetlyane”. / Vse eto delal, kak nitschij, / Kak vor, vsujdu proklyatyj lujd’mi” (“My white divine brain / I gave, Russia, to you: / Be me, be Khlebnikov. / I drove piles into the mind of the people and the axis, / I made a pile hut / "We are budetlyans". / I did all this like a beggar, / like a thief, everywhere cursed by people”) (Khlebnikov, 2001, p. 287). The lines that are amazing in their artistic power, reminding both of ancient lapidarity and persecuted poet-prophet image of Russian literature, show how aspiration to the future, which was undoubtedly associated by the poet with dialogue of cultures intensification, has clear national priorities –sacrificial service to the people, the country, and Russia.

References

1. Arenzon, E. R., & Duganov, R. V. (2001). Kommentarii. Khlebnikov V., sobranie sochinenij v 6 t. 2. [Comments. Khlebnikov V., collected works in 6 volumes. T2. (pp. 496-591)]. Nasledije Publ.
2. Dostoevsky, F. M. (1984). Polnoye sobranie sochinenij: in 30 vol. [Complete Works: at 30 vol.], Vol. 26. Leningrad, Nauka Publ.
3. Gasparov, M. L. (2000). Schitalka bogov (o p'ese V. Khlebnikova «Bogi») [Counting of the Gods (about V. Khlebnikov's play "Gods")]. Mir Velimira Khlebnikova. Stat'i i issledovaniya 1911–1998. Languages of Russian Culture Publ.
4. Cecchini, L. M. (2019). Baroque Futurism: Roberto Longhi, the Seventeenth Century, and the Avant-Garde. The Art Bulletin, 101(2), 29-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.2019.1527641
5. Grübel, R. (2019). (Neo-)Mif i diskurs v russkoj kul'ture: mezhdu prirodoj i kul'turoj [(Neo-) myth and discourse in Russian culture: between nature and culture]. Russian Literature, 107-108, 49-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ruslit.2019.10.004 [in Rus.]
6. Ialongo, E. (2016). Futurism from foundation to world war: The art and politics of an avant-garde movement. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 21(2), 306-323. https://doi.org/10.1080/1354571X.2015.1134938
7. Ioffe, D., Toporkov, A., & Yudin, A. (2017). Magiya – Fol'klor – Literatura. Vvedenie v temu [Magic - folklore - literature. Introduction to the topic]. Russian Literature, 93-94, 1-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ruslit.2017.11.001 [in Rus.]
8. Khlebnikov, V. (2000)-(2006). Sobranie sochinenij: in 6 vol. [Collected Works: in 6 vol.]. Nasledije Publ. [in Rus.]
9. Lahti, K. (2014). Ideophones in Vladimir Mayakovsky's work. Pragmatics and Society, 5(3), 419–430. https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.5.3.06lah
10. Mineralova, I. G. (2004). Russkaya literatura serebryanogo veka. Poetika simvolizma. [Russian literature of the Silver Age. The poetics of symbolism]. Flinta, Nauka Publ. [in Rus.]
11. Mondry, H. (2017). Puppy Politics and Milk Brotherhood in Khlebnikov’s ‘The Night before the Soviets’. Russian Literature, 87-89, 17-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ruslit.2017.04.003
12. Pavlovsky, A. S. (2019). Po povodu stat'i Pavla Ryzhakova «Zametki o “Paskhe v Enzeli”» [On Pavel Ryzhakov's article "Notes on Easter in Anzeli"]. Voprosy Literatury, 2, 107–114. https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2019-2-107-114 [in Rus.]
13. Penskaya, E. N. (2019). Khlebnikov i Sukhovo-Kobylin. K Probleme tekstologii russkogo kosmizma. [Khlebnikov and Sukhovo-Kobylin. On the problem of textual criticism of Russian cosmism.] Imagologiya i comparativistica, 12, 158-180. https://doi.org/10.17223/24099554/12/8 [in Rus.]
14. Potts, J. (2018). Futurism, futurology, future shock, climate change: Visions of the future from 1909 to the present. Portal, 15(1–2), 99-116. https://doi.org/10.5130/portal.v15i1-2.5810
15. Ryzhakov, P. B. (2019). Zametki o “Paskhe v Enzeli” [Notes on "Easter in Anzali"]. Voprosy Literatury, 2, 94-106. https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2019-2-94-106 [in Rus.]
16. Sakharov, I. P. (1991). Russkoe narodnoe chernoknizhie [Russian folk black book]. Eureka Publ. [in Rus.]
17. Sakulin, P. N. (1990). Filologiya i kul'turologiya [Philology and Culture Studies]. Vysshaya shkola Publ. [in Rus.]
18. Sokolova, O. V. (2019). Osobennosti perevoda avangardnyh okkazionalizmov (na materiale «Futuristicheskoj kuhni» F.T. Marinetti). [Features of translating avant-garde occasionalisms (based on F.T. Marinetti’s “Futuristic kitchen”)]. Sibirskii Filologicheskii Zhurnal, 2, 254-256. https://doi.org/10.17223/18137083/67/21 [in Rus.]
19. Ternova, T. (2018). Zhanrovyj resurs basni v literature russkogo futurizma. [Genre features of fabled in Russian futuristic literature.] Przeglad Wschodnioeuropejski, 9(2), 123-130. https://doi.org/10.31648/pw.3089 [in Rus.]
20. Uspenkii, P. (2016). Futuristy v Polutoraglazom strel'ce: o poetike memuarov Benedikta Livshica. [Futurists in The Archer with one and a half eyes: on features of Benedict Livshic’ memoirs.] Russian Literature, 82, 67–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ruslit.2016.05.005 [in Rus.]
21. Vasiliev, I. (2015). Stihiya ognya v russkom poeticheskom avangarde (Velimir Hlebnikov i Daniil Harms). [Fire element in Russian poetic avant-garde]. Quaestio Rossica, 3(2), 85-105. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2015.2.097 [in Rus.]
22. Vasilev, S. A. (2015). “Voin ne nastupivshego carstva...” (Poeticheksij stil' Velimira Khlebnikova). [“Warrior to the kingdom that will never come true…” (Velimir Khlebnikov’s poetry style)]. Moscow City University Publ. [in Rus.]
23. Verhaeren, E. (1961). Religii. Stikhi. Perevody s francuzskogo [Relogions. Poems. Translations from French]. State Publishing House of Fiction. https://stihi.ru/2006/12/09-989 [in Rus.]
24. Weststeijn, W. G. (2016). Ajgi and Khlebnikov. Russian Literature, 79, 5-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ruslit.2016.01.002