Initiatory nature of the opposition “child – adult” opposition in the mythopoetic paradigm of Vladimir Mayakovsky's works of the early period

Abstract

This research analyzes Vladimir Mayakovsky’s works of the early period (1912-1916) within the framework of a neo-mythological approach, which allows reconstructing the individual authorial mythopoetic discourse. The article substantiates the inclusion of the literary works of Mayakovsky into the philosophical-culturological context, the importance of their consideration as a poetic and peacebuilding whole with its own patterns of transformation of the archetypal and mythological. The object of this research is the individual mythopoesis of the writer. The described “Dionysianism” of the lyrical hero takes roots in the typological similarities established by the author and noted by other researchers of Mayakovsky’s works, which indicates the consistency of referring to the Nietzschean dialectical opposition of Apollonian and Dionysian. The author notes multifacetedness of the category of the borderline as one of the defining dominants of mythopoetic worldview of the lyrical hero. Therefore, the subject of this research is a particular level of this category: the peculiarity of existence and evolution of a human within the world paradigm in the context of “child – adult” opposition. The novelty of the research consists in establishing the initiatory nature of the category of borderline in the works of V. Mayakovsky. This substantiates the specific, liminal personality traits of the lyrical hero, and proves the furute path of his mythopoetic evolution outlined in the pre-October texts. The author traces the dependence of transformation of mythopoetic constructions on the number of connotational changes in the dialectical opposition “child – adult”. The main result of the conducted research lies in the establishment of causal links between the incompleteness of overcoming the own liminality by the lyrical hero and the fundamental incompleteness of the process of his initiatory “maturing”. The author's special contribution to examination of the mythopoetic structure of the texts of V. Mayakovsky of the early period consists in proving the defining role of the “child – adult” opposition within the paradigm of other mythopoetic characteristics. The author outlines the way for further research of the individual authorial mythological discourse of Mayakovsky's works in the context of subsequent initiatory transformations of human and the world.