Mikhail Epstein

Nature, the World, the Mystery of the Universe:

The System of Landscape Imagery in Russian Poetry (in Russian). Moscow: Vysshaia Shkola, l990, 304 pp.

Table of Contents

Introduction: National and individual images of nature

SECTION 1. MEDITATIONS

  • The poetry of nature and the nature of poetry
  • The lyrical philosophy of nature

    SECTION 2. MOTIFS

  • Motif as a poetic unit
  • The wisdom of trees
  • The language of trees
  • The world of animals and human self-awareness

    SECTION 3. LANDSCAPES

  • From motif to landscape
  • Aesthetic varieties of landscapes
  • Ideal landscape
  • Stormy landscape
  • Melancholic landscape
  • National and exotic landscapes
  • The beginning of the artistic presentation of Russian nature
  • The Crimea and the Caucasus
  • Seasons
  • Winter
  • Summer
  • Landscapes of imagination
  • Modes of landscape fantasies
  • The end of the world
  • The transfiguration of nature
  • The image of eternity, or "the Blissful land"

    SECTION 4. STYLES

  • 18th century (from Trediakovsky to Karamzin)
  • The first half of the 19th century (from Vostokov to Kol'tsov)
  • The second half of the 19th century (from Tiutchev to Lokhvitskaia)
  • The beginning of the 20th century (from Briusov to Kamensky)
  • The poetry of the Soviet epoch
  • 1920-1950s (from Maiakovsky to Tvardovsky)
  • 1960-1980s (from Tarkovsky to Chukhontsev)

    Conclusion. The book of nature

    Appendix: Main landscape images of Russian poetry. The index of subjects and their frequency

    Bibliography

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