The Philosophical Lyrics of Eduard Mizhit

Abstract

The novelty of the approach of the famous Tuvan poet Eduard Mizhit to cognition and research of the world and the human soul, based on the dialogue of literary-philosophical, religious-mythological thought, is considered. For the first time in literary studies of Tuva, an attempt is made to comprehend philosophical lyrics using modern methods of hermeneutic analysis. The task is to interpret Mizhit’s philosophical reflections on the meaning of life, truth, free will and predestination. The present study analyzes the book of poems in prose by E. Mizhit “Kazyrgylyg kuduktung kyigyzy” (“The Call of the Whirling Well”, 2002), the collection of poems and poems “Bödüün oduruglar” (“Simple Lines”, 2006), the collection of free verse “The Broken Moment” ( 2011). Based on the material of the author’s poetic texts, we came to the conclusion that the poetics of E. Mizhit are distinguished by such features as dialectic, intertextuality, appeal to national roots. The key motif of the poetic universe of E. Mizhit is the search for truth, this search is transrational, and therefore the structure of the literary text becomes multi-layered, requiring significant epistemological efforts from the reader. The main questions posed in the analyzed works of Mizhit are mainly of an ontological nature, they are connected with the desire to comprehend the meaning of life. This trend is innovative for modern Tuvan poetry, which has not yet completely departed from the socialist realist paradigm.

Keywords

• tuvan literature
• poetry
• worldview
• philosophical poetry
• meaning of life
• dialogue
• metaphor
• interpretation