On the "foolishness" of poetry: Pushkin's formula in the interpretation of V. Khodasevich

The article is devoted to the analysis of the reception of A.S. Pushkin's legacy in the literary criticism of the Russian emigration literature. The focus of the research is the interpretation of Pushkin's paradoxical formula about the «glupovatost» of poetry in the work of V.F. Khodasevich. The object of the study is the complex of ideas about the nature of poetic creativity formed within émigré Pushkin studies in the first third of the 20th century. The subject of the study is Khodasevich's specific interpretation of this Pushkinian dictum as presented in his article "Glupovatost poezii" (1927). The aim of the article is to reveal the specific features of Pushkin's formula in Khodasevich's critical thought. Particular attention is paid to Khodasevich's deconstruction of the semantic field of the key concepts «ration», «foolishness» and «glupovatost» within Pushkin's worldview. The analysis details how the critic constructs an opposition between «psychologizing» (descriptive, didactic) and «ontologizing» (transformative) poetry, arguing that only the latter can be considered as genuine. The research methodology is based on a combined approach, integrating historical-literary, comparative-historical, and structural-semantic methods of text analysis. A systematization of the connotations of the key lexeme is conducted using the material from Khodasevich's article «Glupovatost poezii». As a result of the study, it is revealed that Khodasevich clearly distinguishes between the concept of «foolishness» as a vice and «glupovatost» as a distinct aesthetic category. According to the critic, in Pushkin's work, "glupovatost" manifests itself as a poetic device, a component of an authorial mask, a law of poetic existence, and a marker of authentic «ontologizing» poetry. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the systematic reconstruction of Khodasevich's interpretative model, which contributes to understanding the reception of the «sun of Russian poetry» within émigré criticism. The results of the study can be used in textbooks on the history of Russian literature, in courses on the literary criticism of the Silver Age and the Russian diaspora, and in curricula dedicated to the philosophy of creativity and the theory of textual interpretation. In conclusion, it is argued that Khodasevich's article represents not merely an analysis of an individual Pushkin aphorism but a literary manifesto that asserts the autonomy and transcendent nature of high poetic art.

Pushkin, Khodasevich, aphorism, formula, poetry, literary criticism, Silver Age, Russian emigration, interpretation, aesthetic