The mystical simplicity of Anna Dolgareva’s poetry

Abstract

The article conducts an in-depth analysis of Anna Dolgareva’s poetic output: a contemporary poet, she has become somewhat of a chronicler of the special military operation. The scholar argues that Dolgareva’s poetics satisfies the needs of the current era: now that the postmodernist and avant-garde potential has been exhausted, the tragic character of history calls not only for a clear stance and unwearied word but also a radical change of tradition. To achieve such an effect with her poetics, Dolgareva opts for straightforwardness of expression and puts the main emphasis on the mission statement of the tragic hero, who is not romanticized but shows awareness of their responsibility. The critic particularly examines Dolgareva’s latest book Red Berry. Black Soil [Krasnaya yagoda. Chyornaya zemlya] (2023). It appears to be a manifesto of the poet’s idea of the protagonist’s direction in life and depicts the lyrical heroine through her various self-identifications – from the long-awaited offspring of a previously childless couple to a jester, the Fool from a tarot deck. In her reconstruction of the heroine’s personality, the critic examines the main motifs of Dolgareva’s lyrical poetry in the philosophical context of Russian poetry in the 2010s–2020s.