О Гоголевском мифе Хлебникова. К прочтению стихотворения «Замороженный Озирис...»

Abstract

1. For some strange reason Gogol was not numbered among the classic writers, who the Futurists proposed to cast overboard from the “Steamship of modernity”. Although struggle against the “classics” was part of the Futurists’ esthetic program, Gogol’s exclusion from this group was neither an accident, nor the result of his being overlooked : rather, this was a purposeful decision. The Futurists had a very definite cult of Gogol. As Andrei Belyi noted in his book Masterstvo Gogolia (Gogol’s Craft, 1935), “Gogol’s sentence begins a period, the fruits of which we too enjoy : in Mayakovsky, in Khlebnikov, in proletarian poets, in writers of novels”. 2. Gogol was one of Khlebnikov’s best loved writers, and he himself wrote about Gogol’s influence on his art. This influence is reflected in many of Khlebnikov’s texts, both from the early and the late period. In one way or another, almost all the “Ukrainian” material, Ukrainian demonology, Ukrainian motifs, images and various “elements” in Khlebnikov’s texts originate in Gogol. In addition, Khlebnikov and Gogol share a common interest in botanical and ethnobotanical nomenclature. Gogolian subtexts in Khlebnikov’s work have been discussed by such scholars as T. S. Grits, V. N. Turbin, V. V. Kravets and A. V. Chobot’ko. 3. My paper will discuss a previous unobserved Gogol source in the poem “Zamorozhennyi Oziris...” (“Frozen Osiris...”, 1920). The key to a correct reading of this poem is provided by an intermediate redaction of this poem, which is entitled “Golonosyi Kruchenykh” (“Bare-nosed Kruchenykh”) and which was found by me. In this text, Khlebnikov draws a portrait of his coauthor with, so to speak, Gogol’s assistance : in particular, by borrowing motifs, images and lexical items from “Zapiski sumasshedshego” (“Notes of a Madman”).