To the problem of reception of Shakespearean motifs in dramaturgy of Anna Akhmatova

Abstract

The subject of this research is the Shakespearean motifs in dramatic compositions of Anna Akhmatova. The research material contains the works of later period – draft of a movie script “On Pilots, or the Blind Mother”, and drama “Enūma Eliš”, which was destroyed and later restored by the author with numerous authorial commentaries and remarks. Akhmatova carefully examined the “Shakespeare question”, was familiar with his texts in the original, as well as translated a passage from “Macbeth”. She was well-versed in the historical connotations of Shakespeare's tragedies, considering Mary Stuart the prototype of Queen Gertrude and Lady Macbeth, and at the same time, rejected this image applicable to herself and her “alter ego” in literature. The main conclusions of this work consists in determination of the peculiar semantic tone of the set of motifs associated with “Hamlet” and “Macbeth” in dramaturgy of Anna Akhmatova, which includes: usurpation of power and envy of the rightful heir, mother – son conflict projected not only on Shakespeare's dramaturgy, but also on mythology, and through mythology on the author's poetry, motif of “drama within drama”, where masks and pseudonyms disguise the inward nature of the author. The direct and indirect quotations from “Hamlet” and “Macbeth” correlates the indicated set of motifs with biography of the author in “On the Pilots, or the Blind Mother” and “Enūma Eliš”, which substantiates the novelty of this research.