Interpretation of acmeistic traditions in V. Shalamov’s poetry

The paper examines the influence of acmeistic patterns on V. Shalamov-poet’s artistic consciousness. The study involves Shalamov’s epistolary and memoirs heritage (letters to N. Mandelstam, N. Stolyarova, essay “Akhmatova,” etc.), where the author reflected on the significance of acmeistic literary tradition, as well as put forward his own understanding of acmeism — not only as an artistic direction, but also as a kind of “life teaching,” a worldview system. One may trace the inheritance of acmeistic principles in Shalamov’s work at different levels. The paper seeks to identify and systematize acmeistic influences in poet’s consciousness. First of all, we are talking about the installation on the “fight for this world” (according to S. Gorodetsky): the multifaceted representation of the phenomena of environmental reality in its colors, forms and subject details. Shalamov inherits this principle, so that the objects of reality play a paramount role in his poetry system and receive no less distinct and large embodiment than in the work of acmeists. Such an arrangement is carried out by Shalamov in contrasting aspects: on the one hand, the imprinting of terrible world in which man barely survives and to which he seeks to resist; оn the other hand, even in the most adverse circumstances of imprisonment, the poet saw and felt the harmony and greatness of nature. The connection with the acmeistic thinking in Shalamov’s works is also expressed in the fact that his images are almost always substantive and tangible (this feature manifested itself as early as in the first poem of “Kolyma notebooks”). As in the lyrics of acmeists, he often refracted the inner world through external, spiritual experiences — through the prism of the subject plan (the principle that was realized brightly in the lyrics of A. Akhmatova). It is not often that the reader finds “pure” lyrical monologues, much more typical for Shalamov`s creative tactics — to characterize the internal state through a chain of real images. Acmeistic logic could be traced in the interpretation of a number of important topics, among which the theme of creativity (characteristic features of its interpretation are shown in the article on the example of poems “Ode to Loaf,” “May it be clumsily uneven…,” “By ungainly prisoner step...”). The paper addresses such a significant aspect (also linking the poet to the acmeistic tradition) as a bodily nature of the figurative world. Finally, important feature of acmeistic thinking, which is inherited by Shalamov, is the obvious appeal of his creativity to the interlocutor, the focus on the reader (this feature is immanent, certainly, not only in the consciousness of akmeists, but it has fundamental significance in their creativity). The study concludes that among the traditions influenced Shalamov-poet, the acmeist becomes one of the most important, most significant artistic and worldview guidelines.