Lyrical hero of V. Mayakovsky: “double”, “many-face” or “game”?

Abstract

Different literary critics at different times pointed to the same fact - the versatility of the manifestations of the lyrical hero V. Mayakovsky, openly declared in his poetry. Loneliness, unrequited love, autobiography, personal specificity of the lyrical hero, opposition to the crowd of people alien to him and then - focus on the fate of the people of Russia, pain for the fate of millions and the desire to merge his I with the multi-million we ... The versatility of the poet as a real feature of Mayakovsky in the Russian literary process was pointed out by P. Pilsky, the constant opponent of Mayakovsky, and the emigrant R. Yakobson, and the Soviet critic V. Alfonsov, who considered the repeatedly and persistently repeated double image-formula to be characteristic of the poet his lyrical hero. All three, speaking of the diversity of Mayakovsky's creative manifestations, at the same time had in mind different reasons for such diversity. R. Yakobson revered his nature for the many-sidedness inherent in Mayakovsky the poet and Mayakovsky the man (in other terminology - diversity), Pilsky erected him not to the personal (qualitative) features of Mayakovsky, but to his desire for play, theatricality, change, on different terminologies, poses, roles, masks; to the demonstrativeness of the image he created. The double formula of Mayakovskys lyrical hero, put forward by V. Alfonsov, like the concept of many-sidedness defended by Jacobson, deduced the versatility of Mayakovskys poetic image from the features of his personality, believing it, however, not many-sided, but only dual . The article discusses each of the three concepts in relation to Mayakovsky's lyrical hero (doubling, diversity, play), and provides arguments for and against each theory.