Pashkurov A.N.

 

“Nocturnal” poetry of Russian Pre-Romanticism in the focus of “middle culture” poetics. Pp. 84–90.

UDC 821.161.1-1.09″17″

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2025.89.4.009

 

Abstract. The article examines one of the key phenomena of Russian pre-Romanticism at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, “nocturnal poetry,” through the prism of key trends in the so-called middle culture, the epicenter of a general phenomenon in literary culture. We can definitely considered the following three points as the fundamental postulates of the theory of middle culture: the concept of dialectical contrasts and the genesis of the phenomenon of the “reconciling middle”; the hypothesis of the existence of attractors in the “centers of attraction.” Depending on whether the whole strives to bring order into the chaos or to restructure the existing order for its transition to a new level of development, These attractors may be, respectively, ‘simple’ or ‘complex.’ The doctrine of triads forms the basis of Trinitarian harmonizing thinking. The study of the various stages and typology of “middle culture” is relevant because, in many ways, it is this factor that ensures the development of the entire cultural system as a whole.

The aim of this study is to analyze the typology of manifestations of the middle cultural trends in the “night-time” poetry of Russian pre-Romanticism.

In the “nocturnal” poetry of Russian pre-Romanticism of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Night appears, on the one hand, as a kind of closed world, where the contradictions of Existence are most dramatized. On the other hand, it is a special transitional area between earthly life and the heavenly ideal. In the second case, we can speak of a reflection of the typically pre-Romantic principle of the tripartite world. The first of these trends is higher in rank, its task being to present a new type of systematic thinking that strives for equality and harmonious interaction between all its elements.

At the same time, the symbolic image of Night exists and develops between the extremes of Harmony and Disharmony. The idea of ultimate Harmony is reflected in the concepts of Peace and Silence, while Disharmony as a concept of the world is represented through a motif complex of reflection striving to comprehend itself.

A complete picture emerges when we consider all periods of the genesis and evolution of “nocturnal” poetics in Russian lyrical and philosophical consciousness: from writers in the transitional stage between sentimentalism and early pre-Romanticism (M. M. Kheraskov, I. I. Chemnitzer, M. N. Muravyov) to writers at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, who in many ways anticipated the discoveries of Russian Romanticism in the first third of the 19th century (A. Yakubovich, E. Smagin, P. Andreev, and others).

Among our research prospects, we consider a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics of the “night imagery” in the philosophical poetry of Russian Romanticism.

 

Keywords: harmonizing tendencies of literary culture, reflection motive, “nocturnal” poetics in Russian Pre-Romanticism, symbol-images of silence and quietude, “middle culture”.

 

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