The imaginary space of M. Tsvetaeva’s poem ‘In the Hall’ [‘V zale’] and the reader’s strategy

Abstract

The article deals with the unique viewpoint of the reader who, when reading Tsvetaeva’s ‘In the Hall’ [‘V zale’], discovers that, along with the space of the artistic world inhabited by the poem’s lyrical heroes, the poem offers an extra level — one produced by the heroes’ imagination. The children in the poem allow the reader to catch a glimpse of their imaginary world. The world of a child’s play exists in the minds of the depicted heroes, meaning a doubling of the artistic reality. It is for this reason that the reader becomes aware of a double viewpoint — one of a grown-up observer and the other belonging to the young heroes, and is exposed both to the visually perceptible embodiment of the world created by the poet as well as to the space hidden inside of it (visible only to the children). The structure of the depicted hall is transformed through the introduction of the space of a hero’s imaginary world. The game described in the poem is, therefore, taking place not only in the reader’s presence, but with the reader’s participation, meaning that self-reflection of the lyrical ‘us’ achieves its development, with the reader sharing in the experience.