Poetic text as a symphony of cinematographic devices (An experimental analysis of O. Mandelstam’s poem “To the German Tongue”)

Abstract

The article deals with the range of poetic devices used by O. Mandelstam, which, as the analysis of his poem “To the German Tongue” shows, bear a striking resemblance to film editing techniques of the 1920s. It looks closely at the episodes of the poet’s life when he came into contact with the art of filmmaking, and then proceeds to the examination of similarities between the buildup of a film and the inner structure of Mandelstam’s poem. Special attention is given to the techniques resembling those of film splicing, as well as to the perception of the poem by the reader, which is similar to the perception of a film by the viewer. The research has shown that parallels can be drawn between the poetic devices used in the poem and the inner structure of early 20th century films.