Analog and Digital Poetry in the Context of Time

Abstract

The article provides a review of the monograph Poetry in the digital age. In the artistic world of Valery Dudarev by M. A. Dudareva, D. A. Aripova and V. V. Nikitina (Moscow; St. Petersburg: Centre of Humanitarian Initiatives, 2024. – 116 p.). The researchers analyzed V. Dudarev’s poetics in cultural and philological aspects with an emphasis on the apophatic (transcendental, thanatological) properties of the organization of poetic texts. The book consists of an introduction, three collectively authored chapters, Natural Philosophy of Valery Dudarev, Dialogues with the Other, and Reverse Perspective, and a conclusion. Together they present an existing and eye-opening read on Russian poetry, with some poems analyzed through various lenses in several chapters of the book.  The ontological and hermeneutic approach provided a deep insight into the worldview, and particularly the poetics of V. Dudarev. To answer the questions stated in the introduction, the authors developed a system of terms interdisciplinary in nature in order to describe the poetics both from rational and intuitive perspectives. Valery Dudarev is a great Russian poet, and his works reflect and preserve the Russian cultural code. One of the major topics and sources of inspiration for the poet was Russian countryside, represented through villages, gardens, country roads, wells, chapels, etc. In the first chapter, the authors of the monograph show their readers the semantic reserves of V. Dudarev’s natural philosophy, manifested in the inseparability of the natural and the sacred. Concepts such as earth, sky, water, fire, air, wood, and Motherland are the basis of Dudarev’s poems. Through the presence in the natural world, V. Dudarev’s lyrical hero establishes semantic connections at deep level and forms new types of interdependence between the phenomenal (contemplative) and the noumenal (cognizable). The second chapter reveals that the features of Valery Dudarev’s dialogical self are determined through an existential reading of plot and figurative-linguistic connections with Pushkin, Lermontov, Mandelstam, Samoilov and many other poets. As a result, the apophatic reserve of Russian poetry was shown on significant empirical material. In the third chapter, the apophatic reserve of the analog poetry of the pre-digital era was presented using the example of vast empirical material. The authors of the monograph draw attention to the risks associated with digital poetry, in which a metaphysical view of the world is lost. On reading Poetry in the Digital Age, one not only gets to know Valery Dudarev as a poet and thinker, but also develops curiosity to learn more about his works and Russian poetry in general.