OPPOSITION “LIFE/DEATH” IN THE WORK OF I.F. ANNENSKY AND R.M. RILKE

Abstract

The article carries out a comparative analysis of the creativity of I.F. Annensky and R.M. Rilke, the expediency of which is determined by: the unity of the cultural and historical context; a combination of the features of classics and modernism in the work; the similarity of general cultural and literary interests and hobbies. It is shown that the closeness of the poets is revealed both at the formal-stylistic and at the content-semantic level. The central place in their artistic worlds is occupied by the opposition “life/death” position, which is dictated by both objective (the dominant decadent mentality of the late XIXth – early XXth centuries, the influence of symbolist poetics) and subjective (incurable illness and awareness of the proximity of death) factors. It is argued that the work of Annensky and Rilke is characterized by: “mourning aestheticism”; the concept of “longing”, expressing the dominant mood associated with the awareness of the unattainability of the ideal, the fragility of beauty and the inevitability of the sacrifice associated with it. Serving art in the interpretation of Annensky and Rilke requires sacrifice (for both, the image of Orpheus is important, symbolizing creativity, as well as the unity of life and death).