“Over the Horizon: Comparative Perspectives on Literature”
Conference in University of London, 28 March 2020
Introduction
There are such periods in history of culture when the needs of the development of society inspire the artist to turn to the experience of rhetoric. These are the periods when insufficient experience has been accumulated in the polemic genres of eloquence — judicial and deliberative speeches, but there is a lot of experience in the epideictic genre. For Western culture, it was 16 century. In this period, Shakespeare acted as a person who gave patterns of rhetorical thinking.
Soviet culture, which experienced totalitarianism, was exclusively monologue-shaped. The destructive role was played not so much by censorship prohibitions, but by what Orwell called positive censorship: “It not only forbids you to express — even to think — certain thoughts, but it dictates what you shall think” (Orwell, 1941). The same thoughts were repeated over and over. The author, who managed to bring a polemic into soviet culture, was the most popular poet and actor of the Soviet era Vladimir Vysotsky. According to VTsIOM (All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion) Vysotsky is the second most popular figure in Russia after Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut.
Perhaps we can talk about the direct influence of Shakespeare on the artistic thinking of Vysotsky, whose favorite role was Hamlet and who wrote a poem «My Hamlet.» However, more importantly, he took a position in Soviet literature similar to that of Shakespeare in his epoch.
Rhetoric of Vysotsky
Like Shakespeare, Vysotsky’s rhetoric is manifested on three rhetorical levels: inventions, dispositions, and style.
Vysotsky’s invention is characterized by conversion to rhetorical contraversion. Character argues with circumstances or with himself. Many verses are accusatory or defensive speeches. Some mention the court itself. This brings them in line with Shakespeare’s well-known interest in judicial eloquence.
Plot of many songs is paradoxical. E.g. “A Parable of Truth and Lie” or “Cynical dirge”.
In many songs of Vysotsky there is the so-called «theme of duality”. Vysotsky develops the theme in three directions: following the Old Russian tradition, following the new European tradition and proposing his own approach.
For the first time, the topic of duality arose in Russian literature in the 17th century, when sins were described as independent characters entering into dialog with main personage. Such, for example, is the “Tale of Grief and Misfortune”, where the character’s alcoholism appears in the image of fate, which in turn is divided into two evil characters — Grief and Misfortune. Almost the same plot we see in Vysotsky’s “Two Fates”. However, Vysotsky is talking not only about drunkenness, but also about the weak character and irresponsibility of the character at all. The character goes with the flow both metaphorically and literally. He glides in a boat past the shores to the point of evil destiny. Evil fate appears in two images — Curve (Кривая) and Hard (Нелегкая). In English poetic translation: Crooked Fate and Evil Fate. Vysotsky plays with Russian idioms with the words «Кривая» and «Нелегкая»: Нелегкая заносит — Hard drifts over, Кривая вывозит — Curve takes out. Both paths are fatal, and the character leads a desperate argument with them, rushing from one to the other. They chase him. He finally managed to escape.
In one comic song, it is a genie that crawls out of a wine bottle. Guessing that this is a genie, the character asks him to build a palace, but he replies that of all the miracles, he is only trained in punching in a nose. Personage have to call a police. Now the genie will fall into Butyrka, that’s the name of the famous prison. This name is consonant with Russian word “butylka” — “bottle”.
Sometimes duality is transmitted in the manner in which it is stated by Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”: bad and good, creative and destructive in one man.
I am an exotic man, to put it mildly,
My tastes and my demands are rather strange,
I can, for instance, nibble glasses madly,
And read the works of Schiller for a change.
In another poem, we see the confrontation between the character and Stalin’s tattoo on his chest. In gulag, people tattooed Stalin’s profile close to the heart so he can hear their hearts breaking.
In some of Vysotsky’s songs, the struggle is not between consciousness and the subconscious, but between consciousness and what Freud called the superego.
For example, in a song about a military pilot, it gets a heroic interpretation.
The fighter (plane) is tired, he does not want and can no longer make dangerous turns, he runs out of fuel, but the fighter (pilot) sends him again and again to battle. He acts as superego.
Only when a pilot killed a plane gets freedom, but he cannot use it, does he fall.
The sounds of this poem so skillfully convey the sounds of air combat that military pilots, participants in the war could not believe that Vysotsky himself did not fight.
In this battle airplanes sound: Soviet Yak, German Messerschmidt and Junkers. The fall of the bomb and the fall of the plane are conveyed in the expression paradoxical in this context, “Peace to your home.”
From out the bomber the bomb down brings
Death to the airdrome,
It sounds as though the stabilizer sings
“P-e-e-e-eace to your home!”
Из бомбардировщика бомба несет
Смерть аэродрому,
А кажется, стабилизатор поет:
Мир вашему дому!
The “Hamletian alternative” occupies a special place: the character does not want to go down to the general level, but in the end the fighting spirit wins in it.
In “Amblers race” the horse does not want to obey the jockey, but cannot but come first. Horse drops the jockey and comes first.
For the first time I was not the ambler –
I just tried to win like all the rest!
Я впервые не был иноходцем,
Я стремился выиграть, как все!
This is a very important motive in the work of Vysotsky. In «My Hamlet»:
But I refused to enter in the fight.
For privileges, glory, spoils and booty.
And in final:
We pose again the tricky old reply
And cannot find the necessary query.
А мы все ставим каверзный ответ
И не находим нужного вопроса.
Disposition.
In the field of disposition, we see a deeply rational composition with exhausting of all possible approaches to the topic.
In his song “Who is running for what” we see four types of runners. It is like casting or like choosing a casket in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”. Such a scenario have deep rhetorical tradition.
Each runner has his own goals, his past and behaves differently while running.
The first runs confidently. He wants to «get close to the pot.» He did not have high thoughts, because he ate little porridge in childhood. Number two hopes for fame, he did not have a problem with food, he is «one of those». Number three from the second row. Probably there was no one to run or the coach took pity. He repeats to himself: «This is your last chance, old man». The fourth is running for nothing, then he will catch up, then he will fall behind.
The first does not swallow a piece, the second does not crown with a laurel wreath, and the third creeps along the siding.
The poem «Stars» describes the battle. The theme of the star is played on all possible sides.
Style.
In Vysotsky’s style we see language sophistication, unexpected metaphorical rapprochements and the famous Shakespearean amphibole, which from the “secret meaning of sly speech of spirits” falls into the inner monologue of personage and combines with the theme of duality. The dual interpretation of Soviet common places (witch analog) is combined with the bifurcation of the character himself.
Vysotsky remarkably reflects the speech of uneducated people, all kinds of language awkwardness. He especially loves language contamination that occurs in the speech of an uncultured person or a mentally ill person — a victim of television. Masterfully imitates Vysotsky drunken speech, especially in the poem «Police Protocol.»
Let me say some words about phonetical and rhythmic side of style.
Vysotsky’s rhymes are diverse and unexpected. He has all kinds of rhymes: masculine rime, punning rime, feminine rime, identical rime. He widely uses shadow rhyme or echo-rime. “A Song About Yogis” is entirely built on shadow rime. Unfortunately, the effect disappears when translating.
Чуть чего, так сразу йог — вбок. /chutj-chevo tak srazy jok f bok/
Он, во-первых, если спит — сыт. /on vopervyh jesly syt spit/
Vysotsky’s unexpected rhymes are associated with the richness of his language. Speaking about the richness of Shakespeare’s language, Russian scholar M. Morosov notes, that this richness is the result of the wide coverage of life. However, “the richness of language of Shakespeare is not so much in number of words, but in the huge number of meanings and shades in with Shakespeare uses the word”(Морозов, 1954) He illustrate it by the word “free”. The same can be said about Vysotsky’s language. As an example, we could take the word “friend” or “comrade”. We see all shades of meanings of these words: ironic, official, friendly.
In the works of Vysotsky, you can find all the figures of speech, which enhances the rhythmic and phonetic unity of verses.
Like Shakespeare , Vysotsky uses an antimetabole.
Gossip is circulating that there will be no more rumors at all.
Rumor has it that gossip will be banned.
Meet cases of repetition of morphemes, unfortunately, poorly translatable.
The uniqueness of Vysotsky’s position in Soviet and post-Soviet culture
Not before or after Vysotsky was there such a rhetorical, rationalistic and analytical poet in Soviet culture. However, this rationalism was hidden behind the emotions of his songs.
It is not easy to believe that poems of such emotional intensity as Vysotsky’s influence the cognitive sphere. As we can see, the same problem is in connection with the work of Shakespeare.
Vysotsky is completely different from soviet rock singers, like Viktor Zoi and others. Poetics of rock is the lyrics of protest, which does not imply the development of thought and internal polemics. Along the same line, one can distinguish between the poetics of Vysotsky and Mayakovsky, with whom he is often compared. But Vysotsky’s position is the position of an adult. The word “wise” applies to him. Mayakovsky, by comparison, is a protesting teenager who does not accept the adult world and who naively believed the Bolsheviks.
People who performed their own guitar songs in the USSR were called «bards». Vysotsky was also called a bard. He really has motives typical of bards: mountains, sea, and even pirates. But the songs of the bards are lyrics, and Vysotsky wrote mini-dramas. Vysotsky brings his characters to the stage.
Vysotsky always stands up for the weak, for those who are deprived of life experience, education, intelligence, for the drunk, for those who have lost their social face, for the mentally ill. His own voice sounded much less than that of the bards, and usually in connection with the theme of art.
Conclusion
Vysotsky is rather playwright than a lyric poet. He created many characters who justify themselves and others, blame themselves and others, argue with themselves and others. His poetry is a realm of rhetoric, where you can find all the wealth of rhetorical means.
Vysotski broke the boundaries of thinking of a Soviet man. His role in Soviet and post-Soviet culture is unique. His position similar to the role played by Shakespeare in English culture in many ways. His ironical phrase «Old Men, I am Shakespeare by vocation» was not a joke only.