Article

Name: The Poem “Hagia Sophia” by I. Bunin: Architectural “Cosmism” in the Structure of Lyrical Plot

Authors: A. A. Chevtaev

Russian State Hydrometeorological University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

In the section The Plot in the System of Cultural Universals: Bunin, East and West of the Russian Emigration

Abstract:

The article is devoted to the poetics of the poem “Hagia Sophia” (1906) by I. A. Bunin in the aspect of the plot representation of artistic ontology.

The ontological basis of I. Bunin’s poetry and prose is the cosmic worldview, which determines the specifics of the construction of his artistic universe. The formation of the ideology of “cosmism” in Bunin’s work occurs at the beginning of the 20 th century, when the poet intensively learns the experience of other religions and cultures. The feeling of being as a cosmic unity of the world order is affirmed in his “oriental” lyrics of 1903–1907. At the same time, the East appears as a unified semantic space that equalizes various religious and historical and cultural formations in terms of values.

The poem “Hagia Sophia” is included in the corpus of “oriental” poems by the poet and reveals his creative perception of the Constantinople Cathedral of Hagia Sophia (mosque). Structural-semiotic analysis of this poetic text shows that its plot construction explicates the logic of Bunin’s “grasping” of the being essence of the temple space. In the process of unfolding the lyrical plot of the poem, the contemplated process of the “evening” Muslim worship, the “morning” solar pacification of the temple and the “dove” appeal to the life forces of the universe are combined in an integral system of the world order. The convergence of these vital manifestations of the universe in the space of the temple becomes the central event in the plot structure of the text, which explicates the lyric subject’s awareness of the cosmic unity of the created world. The reception of the lyrical subject of Hagia Sophia is aimed at understanding not so much the Islamic religious and cultural identity as the fullness of life that testifies to itself in the sacred space of the temple. The eternity of the cosmos, which appears in the architectural locus, is thought of as an axiological peak in self-determination on the axis “man – universe”. The unfolding of the text’s plot structure, which represents through the oppositions “evening – morning”, “darkness – light”, “speech – silence”, “man – dove” the events of striving for the transformation of being, confirms the idea of the ontological unity of the vital manifestations of the world order.

It is concluded that in the poem “Hagia Sophia” by I. Bunin the architectural world of the temple embodies the ideology of “cosmism” as a convergence of anthropological and natural principles, revealing one of the aspects of the movement of Bunin’s poetics to the concept of “unified soul of the universe”.

Keywords: I. Bunin, architectural space, lyrical structure of plot, cosmos, narrative, poetics of “cos- mism”, eventfulness, temple, artistic ontology

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