“Open multitude”. Alexander Mikhailov on artistic cyclization of lyric poetry

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the concept of artistic cyclization of lyric poems in the article on “West-East Divan” by Goethe written by A.V. Mikhailov the most prominent Russian Germanist and theorist of literature. This work by Alexander Mikhaylov has not yet been introduced into the stable practice for contemporary studies of literature cycles, though since long it has deserved such an introduction. The originality of Mikhailov’s conception is proved, first of all, in refusing to reduce the importance of cyclization to creation of a continuous series in poetic works expressing successive order of inner experiences for the lyric “Me”. By the example of analysis of a book of poems “West-East Divan” by Goethe Mikhailov convincingly proves that cyclization is first of all an “open set” of intentions and expressions in the presence of a “general idea”.