THE IMAGE OF THE LILAC FLOWER AS PART OF THE FLORAL SYMBOLISM IN THE TEFFI’S COLLECTION OF POEMS «THE SEVEN LIGHTS»

Abstract

A large number of texts (primarily poetic ones) in which floral images occur are indicative of the special place of plants in the Teffi’s picture of the world. In 1910, the publishing house «Shipovnik» published the first poetry collection of Teffi «The Seven Lights». The book of poems by Teffi abounds in floral symbolism. However, the collection is divided into several small cycles dedicated to the seven gemstones. Among these cycles, one stands out; it «breaks» the history of stones and is dedicated to lilacs. The article focuses on the consideration of the cycle - «White Lilacs». In it, the lyrical heroine identifies herself with the flower of the lilac. The article is devoted to the author's picture of the world through the mythopoetics of the cycle of poems about lilac. Lilac for Teffi was a special flower, not only in poetry, but also in her life: this is confirmed by her correspondence with friends. The article reconstructs the model of the Teffi’s world, which is formed on the basis of the author's myth about the lilac. In the Teffi’s world model, the lilac appears in the image of the world tree, since it specifies the spatial parameters and the orientation rules in it. The article reveals the features of the cycle connected with the poetics of symbolism. The poet of the cycle «White Lilac» is close to the aesthetics of symbolism, where the symbol stands in the center. However, in the poetry of symbolism, the lilac never occupied a special position, like a rose. The lyrical heroine is a mediator between the earthly world and the heavenly. The extraterrestrial origin of the heroine refers to the Vl. Solovyov’s myth of Sophia, where Sophia was to descend from heaven to earth together with the dawn. In thus way Teffi actualizes the Vl. Solovyov’s myth about the Eternal Femininity, transforms the motif of sultry, set by the French Symbolists and supported by the Russian poets’ aesthetics. In addition, the author actualizes the idea of unity, which is characteristic of the aesthetics of the Silver Age. One of the poems of the cycle «White Lilac» is similar to the cycle of Vyacheslav Ivanov «The Sonnet Wreath» is based on the semantics of the numbers «one» and «two». Here again, the connection of Teffi's creativity and the main tendencies of symbolism is noticeable. Teffi’s lilac is a kind of parody of the occult symbol of the rose: it becomes part of the personal myth of the author, while the image of this flower in a general view is approaching everyday life. This is a deliberate decline in symbolism, a mockery of image-symbols. She takes common motives, but puts her own ironic worldview at the center.