The poetics of the enumeration in an epic and lyric text («Queue» by G. Sapgir and «Queue» by V. Sorokin)

Abstract

The article is concerned with the issue of the enumeration of grammatically homogeneous elements and the function of that enumeration in epic and lyrics. Repetition, including repetition with variations, is recognized as one of the fundamental elements of a literary text. We will be interested in repetition grammatically and partly syntactically, as a syntactic reproduction of grammatically similar structures (an example is the so-called «infinitive writing» by Zholkovsky or the principle of «verblessness» by M. Gasparov). It will also not be possible to describe their diversity in one article, so we will focus on the very principle of repeating grammatically homogeneous elements and we will show how this principle works in epic (using the example of Sorokin’s novel «Queue») and in lyrics (using the example of Sapgir’s poem of the same name). The sequence of the queue’s replicas in Sorokin generates narrativity, building the whole from parts, philosophical generalization, and «accumulation». Overcoming heterogeneity and diversity is carried out through narrative and plot schemes. In Sapgir’s poetry, the list of grammatically homogeneous structures (words and sentences) shows the impossibility, absurdity of the whole, irony in relation to philosophical generalization. The repetition of words, the same or grammatically similar, but different, reveals the complexity and versatility of the world, it’s irreducibility to a single pattern.