The Wagnerian Layer in I. Annensky’s Poetry

Abstract

Passion for R. Wagner’s music and aesthetic ideas was characteristic of the Art Nouveau culture. At the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, it affected the Symbolist theater and shaped the aesthetic and artistic worlds of many Russian authors. Innokentii Annensky stood apart from the Russian mainstream symbolism. In his letter to E. M. Mukhina, he defined himself as a Wagnerian. The role of Wagner's aesthetics in the symbolist drama has received a lot of scientific attention, whereas its effect on the Russian modernist poetry remains largely understudied. This article introduces the Wagnerian layer in I. Annensky’s poetry. His Quiet Songs and The Cypress Chest appeared to have numerous references to such Wagner’s works as The Ring of the Nibelung, Parsifal, Tristan and Isolde, and Faust. The author analyzed I. Annensky’s poetry and correspondence. The analysis showed that the method of leitmotif composition helped the poet to structure his poetic ensembles. I. Annensky adopted Wagner's experience of combining operas into a tetralogy and used it to unite his own poetry into cycles. This device is especially obvious in the themes of secret love, the God sense, and the search for the ideal in his stand-alone cycles and poetry books.