inspiration & incarnation

As to the nature of such transcendental non-verbal inspirational sources of textual integration in poetry (as the pictograms or emblems to be circumscribed) one could mention first of all music with its ambiguity and indefiniteness of meanings that affords diverse semantic interpretations and respectively opportunities of such memorizing pictographic “beads” or “emblems” for words. Such “transcendental” approach for textual analysis has been suggested still at the beginning of the 1970s by E. Etkind who has shown that it is already the presence of stylistically marked lexical substance that can be associated with the delineation of a musical theme¹⁰⁴¹. Further researches have shown that musical images as the integrative textual foundation can be detected in poetry at a wide scale. In particular it concerns A. Akhmatova’s works, for instance, “The Poem without a Hero” where R. Schumann’s “Carnival” has become the inspirational source. Moreover such creative attitude with the searches for inspiration in musical sources correlates with the old tradition of “imaginary” non-existent and invented by the poet music, let only E. Hoffmann’s “Kreisleriana” be mentioned here¹⁰⁴². Lyrical poem implies indirect references to musical images as well as to the “visual poem” of imagination. In particular the effect of “endless melody” can be found in alliterative inner rhymes that are permanently modified entailing the impression of melodious continuity¹⁰⁴³. Meanwhile there are much deeper foundations for musical parallels that come from verbal functional distribution and correlate with that in music: it is attested in particular with the role of cadences where one can find in poetry such peculiar musical subspecies of the kind as those of “suspended cadence” (Germ. Trugschluss)¹⁰⁴⁴. Another subspecies of the so called inserted cadence (with the collision of phrases) also can be found in poetic strophes¹⁰⁴⁵. Moreover one has grounds to refer even to those musical inspirational sources that are not mentioned explicitly and are still implied¹⁰⁴⁶. Thus the very existence of functional hierarchy presupposes the involvement of transcendental sources represented in a generalized image of chant as the source for poetry (opposed to colloquy for prose)

This functional hierarchy entails more concrete parallels between musical and verbal textual integrative forces that enable in particular the substantiation of the concept of generalized idea of rhythm and harmony. The concept of semantic rhythm has been introduced for the first time by A.V. Chicherin as the self-organizing mechanism of the inner form in opposite to the usual concept of rhythm attached to sound outer form¹⁰⁴⁷. It reveals itself in particular in the contrast of tempos that of uttered units and the movement designated with the meanings of verbal substance¹⁰⁴⁸. In this respect one can trace the heredity of the theatrical tempo-rhythm so that not it can refer to action without being reduced to corporeal movement as its external attribute. Such connection with the scenic concept of rhythm enable disclosing it personal parameters: semantic rhythm is especially observable in the portrayal of characters. That it doesn’t go about a kind of pantomimic characteristic of a personality can be attested with the role of epithets and other descriptive devices that concern in particular intentions so that it goes about biography as integrated entirety and not its separate aspects¹⁰⁴⁹. Such rhythmic portrayal is especially applicable for the contrast of characters where not only the rhythmic organization but also the lack of it becomes detectable that gives grounds in such cases to say of what has been called “arrhythmia”¹⁰⁵⁰. Therefore one can say of different rhythmic gradations of intensity where even the absence of rhythm is admissible.

The basis of semantic rhythm is to be found in recurrent syntactic structures, though they by no means restrict its developmental perspectives reaching the entirety of a work¹⁰⁵¹. It is just the syntactic source of rhythm and especially the hypotaxis and paratactic constructions as well as the potentialities and actualities that enable involving the textual analysis in disclosing rhythmic organization¹⁰⁵². It is these syntactic processes that entail the involvement of such rhythmic devices as caesura and emphasis, the last especially necessary to designate actuality¹⁰⁵³. Such approach is resonant with that of textual linguistics where the structure of paragraph (as the already discussed I. Galperin’s “prosaic strophe”) displays its rhythmic properties. That rhythm concerns integrative processes involving the interactions of the parts within the whole is attested with its attachments to plot’s evolvement and characters’ actions that build up the irreducible and indivisible synthesis¹⁰⁵⁴. This synthetic aspect of rhythm entails its attachment to temporality where one can say of different times integrated in a textual entity so that one can say of “poly-chronic” structure of artistic time¹⁰⁵⁵.

To sum up, A.V. Chicherin’s concept of semantic rhythm presupposes at least five statements that would discern it from that of a commonly acknowledged approach: 1) one can suppose the existence of different degrees of the intensity of rhythm because together with evident rhythmic textual organization there can be exclusive cases of the absence of rhythm so that rhythm is gradual organization admitting different degrees of intensity; 2) rhythm always behaves as the integrating power of textual structure that unites together and adapts reciprocally heterogeneous textual components as the parts of the artistic entirety to be created and results in their synthesis; 3) there are different temporal layers integrated with rhythm so that textual entirety can’t be reduced to a linear sequence of events within the only existent “timetable”; 4) rhythm is inherently tied with personal attributes of a character revealing itself within the text and represents the whole activity with its intentions irreducible to a simple corporeal movement in he manner of pantomime so that rhythm contributes in making up a portrayal; 5) the sources of rhythm are to be found in recurrent propositional structures that build up the metrical background for evolving rhythm. One could add here still the sixth statement on rhythm’s insufficiency and the necessity of harmony to attain the integrative result of the all-comprising adaptation of textual parts with the whole. Rhythm in the broadest sense is conceived as the integrative power though not the exhaustive one. It comprises the interrelation of the parts within the integrative process although the whole result is not here supposed to be meant; therefore one has still to take into consideration the harmony to come to organic entirety.

This approach has been continued in the doctrine of the prosaic rhythm developed by M.M. Hirschman. Here first of all the heterogeneity of rhythmic components has been taken into account where the polarization of rhythmic elements into the verbal and non-verbal ones is consequently carried out¹⁰⁵⁶. As to the non-verbal rhythm one deals here chiefly with images & actions so that the heritage of scenic rhythm’s concepts is felt quite obviously. The essence of rhythm is seen in its self-organizing capacity ensuing from its structure where the existence of invisible virtual metric structure reproducible in one’s imagination is presupposed that entails the conclusion of applicability to the tasks of stylistic attribution and the revelation of individual creative features¹⁰⁵⁷. The issues of such self-organizing conduct are traceable in particular in statistical regularities when the deviations from the mean value acquire the meaning of stylistic attribute¹⁰⁵⁸.

Another significant statement concerns the transition between surface and deep structures of textual entity and respectively of the interrelation between textual inner and outer forms: due to the initial heterogeneity rhythm becomes the mediating medium providing conditions for such transition between textual layers¹⁰⁵⁹. This mediating mission of rhythm provides the premises for its stylistic role as the means for textual transformation imparting the necessary stylistic traits¹⁰⁶⁰. Still another facet of rhythm concerns its irretrievability and irreversibility that provide the capacity of representing textual anisotropy as the revelation the anisotropy of time so that not only different temporal layers coexist but also their peculiar directedness from past to future is felt¹⁰⁶¹. To sum up, it would be possible to stress the following statements: 1) rhythm represents the synthesis of verbal & visual (mental, motor) components; 2) rhythm not only provides integrative prerequisites but also performs mediating mission as the intermediary link between deeper (inner) and surface (outer) morphological strata; 3) rhythm arises on the basis of invisible virtual metric axis as the system of deviations from it, whereas such axis can be represented with heterogeneous phenomena, be it a simple accentual scheme, recurrent syntactic structure or a series of tautology; 4) rhythm reveals temporal irreversibility as the most essential attribute of time.

Therefore intertextual & codifying properties of verbal substance as such seem to be underestimated in the statements on the singularity of artistic work as such. This uniqueness can be revealed only within the milieu as the existential condition of any synthesis. Not to say of cento one can remind numerous phenomena where the ready stuff is taken as the substance of newly created text so that mimetic precepts remain valid for the broad stylistic areas. The principal objection ensues from the inevitable concomitant codification that indispensably accompanies every textual evolvement. There is no textual spontaneity that would not entail reproducibility. This can be exemplified with the paradoxical issues of rhythmical synthesis of the contrast tendencies as it has been observed in A.S. Pushkin’s works so that the new type of rhythmical development is born that takes its place within the new codification and becomes new tradition¹⁰⁷⁵. Thus rhythm returns to the fundamental antinomy of language in disclosing the dialectics of tradition’s historical existence¹⁰⁷⁶: while rejecting tradition it establishes the new one. In particular intertextual opportunities of relative autonomy of motifs are favored in lyrical poems where a conventional figure can appear in different contextual tissues without essentially modifying its conventional meaning. Taken in the broadest sense it is tradition with its conditions of reproducibility that determines the metrical axis as the mentioned deictic phantom for the formation of rhythm. No need to say that every negation of an old tradition is also the first step for the establishment of a new tradition. Respectively semantic rhythmical analysis necessarily must stretch over the whole textual corpus and not to be restricted with the borders of a chosen work as far as the metrical axis of rhythm acquires intertextual meaning¹⁰⁷⁷. On could say of tradition as a milieu with the semantic metrical space. Besides, it is out of question to ignore intertextual conditions even if one aims at creating some absolute novelty. Especially it concerns the relation of textual tissue to colloquy, to conversational practice of the epoch, and it has been demonstrated that the meaning of textual rhythmical organization can be conceived only within intertextual confrontations and comparisons. It is already colloquy or chant that must make up constant points for references as to the conclusions about the inner textual rhythmic features. In particular for prosaic rhythm it is colloquy that determines the mean value to evaluate deviations and therefore the metric axis of rhythm. It is such reference to colloquy to be born in mind for evaluating the rhythmic quality of prosaic text so that one can’t say about any unique textual entity without intertextual connections.

In particular it concerns syntactic basis of rhythm. It is already the essence of propositional structures of S-P that correlates with the initial metric opposition of arsis vs. thesis in an elementary rhythmical cellule. In the both cases it goes about the functional hierarchy arising from the division of center vs. periphery within textual tissue. The most inventive text in the manner of L. Sterne can’t remain without inevitably recurrent reproduced syntactic structures otherwise it will be merely a grammatical blunder. Therefore it is syntactic structure in the broadest sense that determines the formation of prosaic rhythm: this structure represents textual and temporal anisotropy with its inherent asymmetry (to begin with the asymmetry of propositional structure of subject & predicate). It is the feature of anisotropy that imparts to temporal organization the preferences in comparison to spatiality¹⁰⁷⁸. That is why not only text of a work but the textual corpus of a style determines the type of rhythm as it can be exemplified with the outspoken rhythmical features of sentimentalism¹⁰⁷⁹. The same concerns the creative work of a personality with the respective textual corpus as it can be seen in the legacy of A.P. Chekhov¹⁰⁸⁰. It is here to stress the fact that it goes just about asymmetry (with the ensuing anisotropy) and not only about centralization in the manner of field structures’ hierarchy with their opposition of center vs. periphery. One can find axial vs. lateral areas that don’t presuppose the strict hierarchical subordination. In this respect rhythm arises as an eccentric structure displacing the center and imparting asymmetry to the textual sequence where the relationship of axis vs. laterality discloses the mutability of functional distribution.

These properties of syntactic strictures as the sources for rhythm are especially observable in the positional attachments of rhythmic structures. One of the most significant discoveries in this field is the initial place of rhythm as a kind of starting point of creative process that betrays its inspirational role. This evaluation of rhythm as inspiration is actually attested with the writers’ answers in the special questionnaire distributed by M.M. Hirschman¹⁰⁸¹. It is especially to underline the role of incipit (and initial position as such) for rhythmic organization of a work¹⁰⁸² (especially observable in contrast to the role of cadence and final position in harmony). Meanwhile such incipit must necessarily imply the collision to be developed in the further segments of the work¹⁰⁸³. Rhythm as the integrative textual power shows thus the existence of contradiction that passes the limits of the purely verbal substance and involves the transcendental reality. The reasons for such involvement of non-verbal premises in rhythm’s development are enrooted in the very nature of rhythm that concerns textual codification and the fundamental antinomy of reproduction and productivity in language. These reasons ensue from the inherent contradictions between rhythmic structure and meter as its existential condition. The statement on the opposition to meter as the most significant property of rhythm comes back to the famous place from Saint Augustine’s “Enchiridion” where the essence of this opposition is described within the terms of limitation and infiniteness; of returning and irretrievability as the respective features of meter and rhythm¹⁰⁸⁴. It entails the transcendental nature of rhythm in regard to meter. Therefore the contrast of manifestation vs. latency is of crucial importance for any rhythmical structure as far as it presupposes the existence of meter as a latent scheme¹⁰⁸⁵. It is already the very structure of rhythm as the deviation from the presupposed metrical scheme that entails the consequences of transcendental nature. Meanwhile this inherent contradiction between rhythm and meter concerns also the fundamental antinomy of language as far as the very essence of metrical space is based upon the reproducibility and codification.