Ballad in Modern Russian Poetry: Ways and Nature of Genre Form Transformation

Abstract

The article analyzes the features of transformation of ballad genre form in modern Russian poetry. Relying on theoretical propositions about the specifics of the genre, developed in the works of Yu. N. Tynianov and M. M. Bakhtin, the nature of changes in the features of the genre of ballad are explored in the creative practice of poets of the turn of 20th-21st centuries. The study found that the genre “image” of ballad is directly related to the feature of the modern poetic process, in which there are “traditional” and “avant-garde” paradigms. It is noted that in the works of poets-traditionalists (E. Rein, O. Khlebnikov, O. Nikolaeva, S. Kekova, D. Bykov, etc.) is dominated by a variant of the lyrical ballad, which has a philosophical, elegiac nature, and a special drama and tension are associated here with nostalgic sadness about the past, the loss of ties to the past, discomfort in the present. It is shown that the works of avant-garde poets (T. Kibirov, E. Schvarts, F. Svarovsky, A. Rovinsky, D. Vodennikov etc.) often decanonize genre characteristics of romantic ballads. It is emphasized that through the genre synthesis of ballad, lyrical cycle, parable, and fable the avant-garde poets demonstrate the instability of the era of the late 20th century, the confusion of a man caught in the maelstrom of socio-political events. Analyzing the work of poets, the authors prove that, unlike the poets-traditionalists, the representatives of the avant-garde trend abandon traditional lyricism and actively use all the variety of postmodern techniques.

Keywords

• ballad
• modern poetry
• genre synthesis
• plot
• motive