УДК 821.161.1-821.411.21

EDN SOSPLU

 

Original article

 

«Arab cultural code» in the poetry by N. Gumilyov

Akimova T. I., Ibrahim K. H. I.

 

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the consideration of the “Arab cultural code” in the poetry of  N. Gumilyov is due to both the poet’s personal sympathies for traveling around the countries of the Arab world and the general trend of passion for the poetic East for representatives of the Silver Age, seeking to expand the boundaries of artistic imagery, enrich Russian literature with new themes and poetry practice.

Materials and methods. The material for the article was two collections of works by N. Gumilyov 1991 (reprint of the Washington edition of 1962) and 1998 — 2007. The following methods were used in the work: comparative historical, biographical, structural, cultural and historical and the method of holistic analysis of the work of art.

Results and discussion. Study of collections of poems by N. Gumilyov through the prism of the “Arab cultural code” made it possible to reveal its structure, consisting of both book images and personal impressions of visiting Asian and African countries, focused both on the traditions of medieval Arabic poetry and the period of the adoption of Islam, and absorbing the details of modernity. The central semantic core of the “Arab cultural code” is the lyrical hero’s search for spiritual perfection and an ideal lover, the periphery is an exotic topos, consisting of geographical features of the habitat of Arab inhabitants — Bedouins and Fellahs — and historical parallels, referring either to the reign of Queen Cleopatra, or Sultan Ghassan, or the life of Hafiz.

Conclusion. The conclusions obtained during the study make it possible to supplement the idea of the “Arab cultural code” in the poetry of the Silver Age, to see N. Gumilyov’s changing attitude towards the Arab East, to determine the specifics of his author’s points of view indicating the establishment of intercultural dialogue, to consider the peculiarity of Russian-Arab relations at the turn of the late XIX — early XX centuries.

Keywords: “Arab cultural code”, the work of N. Gumilyov, Russian-Arab ties, oriental motives and images, exotic topos

For citation: Akimova TI, Ibrahim KHI. «Arab cultural code» in the poetry by N. Gumilyov. Bulletin of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia. 2024;16(3):185—195. EDN SOSPLU

 

REFERENCES

 

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6. The Mulahs themselves. The geocultural image of North Africa in Russian travel literature of the late XIX — early XX centuries. Abstract Dis. ... Cand. of Philol. Sci. Moscow;2023. (In Russ.)

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The article was submitted 13.05.2024; approved after reviewing 27.06.2024; accepted for publication 04.07.2024.

 

Information about the authors:

Tatyana I. Akimova, Professor of the Department of Russian and Foreign Literature of National Research Mordovia State University (68 Bolshevistskaya Str., Saransk 430005, Russia), Doctor of Philological Sciences, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6120-1784; akimova_ti@mail.ru

Ibrahim Karvan Haji Ibrahim, graduate student of the direction of training “Russian Literature” of National Research Mordovia State University (68 Bolshevistskaya Str., Saransk, 430005, Russia), khaji0033@gmail.com

 

Contribution of the authors:

Akimova T. I. — concept development, critical analysis and scientific text editing

Ibrahim Karwan Haji Ibrahim — methodology development, data collection and literature analysis, initial article writing.

 

Conflict of interests: the author declare no conflict of interests.

 

The authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.