Poems in Prose by I.S. Turgenev: the Cycle’s Title as a Historical Literary Issue

Abstract

The article deals with the I.S. Turgenevs last cycle Poems in prose which title has been changed several times throughout his work on it. The cycle put together the main aspects of writers previous creative works which led to the continuous search for the most suitable title to fully express authors intentions: from the original Posthuma which is focused on the life after death experience to the last Poems in prose which additionally underlines the uniqueness of the form used for Turgenevs last creative work. The study reveals the main theories on the cycles titles and the reasons behind their changes as well as suggests the own vision of the evolution of concepts after death and senile which are seemed to be bound in writers world view. The sequential analysis of the existing cycles titles undertaken in the current research finds the logic of Turgenevs title transformations where the fear of death is gradually replaced by the thoughts of future new life which will be continued beyond the Earth life. The significance of the research lies in the absence of the unified approach to the naming and understanding of the Turgenevs last cycle while the title of the book was considered to change the works perception even by Turgenevs contemporaries. The scientific novelty of the work is added by using the authors French edition of Poems in prose which up until now hasnt been studied properly. It allows to expand the material of the research and look thoroughly into Turgenevs strategy of naming his final cycle which was preserved for the foreign publication as well.

Keywords

• poems in prose
• senilia
• posthuma
• i.s. turgenev
• title