“I collect the rosary from words...”: Poetic features of Razil Valeev’s verses

Abstract

The article describes the life and creative path of Razil Valeev, analyzes his poetic works and determines the poet’s place in Tatar poetry of the second half of the 20th–early 21st centuries. Although the writer worked fruitfully in all three forms of verbal art, it was in the poetic field that he became famous as a talented poet. This article proves that many poet’s works have become “programmatic” for Tatar poetry and identifies the main trends in his literary career. The central motifs and innovations, introduced by R. Valeev into the concept of the lyrical hero and the verse poetics, are presented in the context of the literary process of the second half of the 20th–early 21st centuries. As a result of our analysis, we trace a revival of rebellious traditions in R. Valeev’s works; against this background, we reveal the concept of his lyrical hero, as well as his system of motifs. The poet revived avant-garde traditions in the spirit of Taktash, successfully used Aesopian language through symbolic images and referred to the folk style in spiritual lyrical poetry.