Onomastic codes of the “Poem Without A Hero” by A. A. Akhmatova as hidden intertextual addressing

Abstract

The subject of this research is the principles of correlation of onomastic code of the “Poem Without A Hero” with the text frame of its various editions, viewed from the communicative-pragmatic perspective. The object of this research is nine editions of the “Poem Without a Hero” and intertextual references marked within the text frame. The author dwells on such aspects as the interrelation between the literary onomastics and hidden meanings of the poem, transformations of the text frame, methods of “instilling” the authorial meanings to intertextual sources (the works of Byron, Pushkin, and Gumilyov). Special attention is given to projection of the personal myth of Anna Akhmatova, which is traced through the poem, on Western European and Russian literature and the evolution of the text frame. It is demonstrated that the ensemble of epigraphs, which represents an implicit dedication to the poet fallen in disfavor, dissolves leaving imprints in the form of mentioning of Byron and Don Juan in the text of the poem. The main conclusion lies in the establishment of a number of semantic correspondences between the text frame and the historical-cultural halo of names, which on the one hand are associated with the imagery-motif level of a particular poem, while on the other – with personal mythology of the poet. The author’s special contribution to this research lies in outlining the strategies aimed at preservation of special intertextual memory in the names. The novelty consists in determination of the semantic halo of the name, which specifies a range of implicit meanings of the poem. It is revealed that these meanings are “supported” by the corresponding references. Such reminiscences, interweaving into a complex ornamental pattern, on the one side are conceptually programmed by the very structure of the “Poem Without A Hero”, and on the other side, determined biographically.