Система образов поэтического мира И. Б. Бурдонова: китайские мотивы и поэтика диалога культур. Статья первая

Introduction. The article examines one part in the system of images inherent to Igor Burdonov’s ‘Chinese’ poetry — images based on visual metaphors, spatial relations, and the logic of natural transformation. The relevance and novelty of the study are determined by the growing attention of contemporary literary criticism to cross-cultural dialogue and to ‘national’ variants of the supertext, as well as by the need to introduce into scholarly circulation a significant body of texts that has so far remained almost unstudied. Goals. The work aims to identify and systematize the key groups of images in Igor Burdonov’s ‘Chinese’ poetry that form the basis of the image system, and to describe their artistic functions and connections with the Chinese cultural tradition. The study if first to attempt a description of the image system inherent to Burdonov’s poetic world, including the identification of connections and specific features of transitions between images. Results. A total of three groups of images have been identified and analyzed: natural-geographical images (mountains, water, rivers, fog, landscape); images associated with the change of seasons and cyclical time (seasons, sunrise and sunset, the moon, snow, leaves); and mythological-zoomorphic images (dragon, qilin, Yu the Great, cicadas, birds, shapeshifting). It is shown that these images form a space of spiritual immersion. Particular attention is paid to visual metaphorics, shifts of perspective, and the motif of transformation linking nature, myth, and humanity. The conclusion is drawn that visual images create the foundation of Burdonov’s poetic world, into which ‘ideational’ images — related to poets, philosophers, metapoetics, and philosophical-divinatory categories — are subsequently inscribed; the latter be considered in the second part of the study.