Національна Академія Мистецтв України Інститут культурології

It is to stress that the properties of distances vs. participation (as well as partiality vs. totality) are observable in all genera though with different revelations and dimensions. Epic author can’t exert any impact upon the retold events but this inability to take part in history does by no means entail the indifference of the narrator. Participation is here the participation of an observer who provides personal influence upon the narrated reality due to the presence in the world. In its turn the lyrical poet doesn’t only participate in the observed event with one’s own meditation. It presumes also the author’s seclusion within one’s inner mental space. Therefore Lyrical distance arises as the inversion of lyrical participation. The externally observable events become redoubled and transformed into the elements of the lyrical poet’s inner space of imagination so that lyrical images become separated from the things they represent. Isolating abstraction results in lyrical distance where the very existence of the inner distanced space would be out of question without personal participation. In its turn drama apparently presumes distance already because of the necessity to discern scenic play from real events. Dramatic conventionality entails dramatic distance.

… The increased textual integration common for the dramatic and the lyric (in opposite to epic disparateness) ensues just from this intentional nature of the genera. The lyric is peculiar first of all with its appeal to self-cognition (), so that universe reveals through uniqueness of personal sentiments and passions. World is conceived in lyrics through an author’s unique and inimitable inner experience. The dramatic also deals with human inner world, but it is the world of alien dramatis personas and not that of the author. Vice versa the author conceals one’s own self and tries to glance into the personal experiences of other persons. Therefore it is lyrical self-cognition that can be regarded as the primary one whereas in drama it arises as the derivative phenomenon. It is in lyrics that one deals with the authentic self-cognition; drama uses this implementation previously prepared with lyrical attitude. The stress upon the inner human world unites the both genera and confronts them to epics. The difference lies in the fact that lyrics “leaves options open” while resolution and decision to action mark drama. It is from here that the indispensable lyrical sincerity arises as the necessary condition for inner revelation. In opposite to it drama must not be sincere (and the Theatre of Representation demonstrates it with the apparent prevalence of conventions) already as far as verbal masks conceal the true intentions. Therefore the question of sincerity in its relation to seriousness arises in connection with the generic distinctive features.

The prerequisite for such mutuality and distinctions is to be found in the communicative conditions, the dramatic and the lyric belonging both to the mentioned type of speech performatives. At the same time such approach enables detecting difference between them: if drama deals with perlocution, it is in lyrics that the illocution reveals itself on a large scale, apostrophe being the first step on this way. If a dramatic author “retreats” to give place for dramatis personae’s voices and conceals oneself behind the scene, the lyrical incognito not only remains always present but includes all in one’s own brain. In particular one can find “illocutionary forces” that attest and manifest author’s presence in lyrical utterances as those of verdictives (as a pure declaration), exercitives (as advices, for instance, in Horace’s epistles), commissives (in oaths), behabitives (in odes), expositives (in appellative verses) [see Арутюнова, 1976, 48]. Thus being together performatives drama and lyrics can be confronted as perlocution vs. illocution where the appellative form obviously would get priority as the necessary premise for perlocution as a conversation indirectly addressed to a third person.

The textual mutuality of the dramatic and the lyric consists already in the communicative properties. Lyrical poem is primarily an apostrophe as an appeal to some addressee that becomes more important than the incognito of lyrical hero and author. Such appeal can be conceived as an unfinished dramatic replica with indefinite references. The similarity of lyrical utterance with dramatic cue has already been noticed by G. Hegel who said of the poet as an actor with infinitely many roles⁸³⁹. Epic stuff can be said to be first lyrically interpreted so that drama would arise as a kind of excerpts made up from a lyrical poem. The idea of the principal unity of dramatic and lyrical texts has been suggested by W. von Humboldt and further developed in A. Holz’s doctrine of drama as the mediated lyrics (vermittelte Lyrik) [Кудрявцева, 2006, 54]. It is the involvement of observer and appeal to its active participation that unites the dramatic and the lyric⁸⁴⁰. Still more important and persuasive is the attachments of lyrics to what has been discussed as the inner action of drama so that the poem concerns the inner world of personality⁸⁴¹. The last idea has been especially elaborated by K.S. Stanislavski who has disclosed the lyrical implicit contents behind dramatic surface. Moreover it was this disclosure of latent lyrical contents intrinsically attendant with drama that gave rise to the doctrine of implicit “subaqueous currents” building up the inner dramatic action⁸⁴². Therefore one can conclude as to the lyrical contents of dramatic action disclosed in its motivational essence. What has been depicted as the phantom takes its part in lyrics thus uniting it with drama. The represented events must be lyrically conceived to get further dramatic motivation. One can easily find grounds for this mutuality between the dramatic and the lyric: it is the common foundation of isolating abstraction applied to speech itself. It is in lyrics that such consequence of artistic reflection takes initial position being further transferred into drama.

Such approach to lyrics seems to have been summed up by T.I. Silman. One of the most observable lyrical properties is that of subjective activity betraying the determining role of intention. A lyrical poem deals with the contents of human subjective inner world⁸⁴³. Therefore participation becomes still more influential and observable than in drama (as a counterpart to epic distance). Obviously it entails the intensified personal attitude⁸⁴⁴ as the initial premise for lyrical contents’ creation. Meanwhile paradoxically this maximum of personal attitude turns into impersonal utterance of the mentioned lyrical incognito concealing both the author’s and the hero’s faces. Thus the known impersonality (to be discerned from folklore anonymity) of lyrical genus arises as the paradoxical consequence of personal attitude and participation⁸⁴⁵. Furthermore this paradox promotes favorable conditions for the formation of deictic system of reciprocal references common both for lyrics and drama as far as incognito presupposes the intensification of pronominal designations as the substitute for impersonal entities⁸⁴⁶. It is pronoun that becomes the genuine noun for lyrical personality. One can say of the paradox of inversed personal participation as the essential generic quality of lyrics. This lyrical paradoxicalness gives rise to such principal semantic property of lyrics as its abstractedness⁸⁴⁷. It would be here appropriately to stress its derivative origin as the result of suggestiveness. Abstractions are not primary lyrical reflection’s products being the hypostasis of deep personal sentiments. The lyric comes to abstractions paradoxically with isolating sentiments and passions and making them the vehicles of abstract ideas. In particular it concerns lyrical temporality that becomes endowed with the properties of what can be called perpetuation⁸⁴⁸. One can say the due to personal mediation the impersonal and perpetual lyrical abstractions arise as the terminal result.

At the same time here still further paradox is to be detected: these abstractions are by no means generalities in the manner of logical categories. Lyrical poem deals with particulars instead of generalizations, and it is particular that is to designate general ideas being “a pretext” for detecting them⁸⁴⁹. Such effect entails an interpretative puzzle for a reader that has to guess the generalities concealed under the surface of particular details⁸⁵⁰. Therefore problematic mood becomes dominant in lyrics. It concerns first of all the subspecies of meditative lyrics (as differed in particular from those of existential or suggestive nature). Due to the prevalence of problematic load meditative lyrics turn out to become the field of permanent artistic mental experimentation. In opposite to dramatic experiments with the examination of a word’s impact upon the decision making process within a partner’s brain it is the space of riddles and circumlocutions where such explorations are conducted in lyrics. In lyrical poems problematic aspect is attested with perpetual questions’ mode that is akin to explorative scientific text due to its abstractedness.

Subsequently succinctness of details becomes the essential lyrical feature attesting the necessity of the searches for latent abstract ideas. The grounds for the conclusion on such construction of a lyrical poem are to be found in the known statements of G. Hegel about the so called “concentration of the heart” (Konzentration des Herzens) or “concentrated attitude” (konzentrierte Strimmung) [Hegel, 1955, 1009, 1017] that have been developed in the doctrine of lyrical concentration as the prerequisite for the rise of lyrical work from the minimal scope of details⁸⁵¹. Thus details dominate in lyrical work and at the same time they are restricted to minimum necessary to give prompts for the searches of the latent contents. It is why the device of periphrastic circumscription where details refer to the essence to be detected gets prominent place in lyrics⁸⁵². In its turn this concentration is to be seen as a parallel to a very special side of lyrical contemplation and partial negation as that of the phenomenon of resignation. It presupposes in particular the voluntary refusal from totality and a predilection for the concentration on details. Besides, resignation is to be discerned from prohibition (and inhibition) as the effect of taboo. It is why one could compare resignation to the mentioned lyrical concentration. It is not difficult to perceive here the reflexive capacities of lyrics. Poetical circumlocutions initiate the process of reflection enabling the detection of latent contents and the derivation of phantoms invisibly present behind the text.

These statements promote in explaining the mediating mission of lyrics in the generic interrelationships. If epics and drama do build together a dualistic model of a metasystem it becomes necessary to seek for the third member that would impart stability to it. There arises in particular a question on how dramatic phantom would be created together with the action’s evolvement. The medium promoting this phantom’s formation is to be seen in lyrical attitude with its reflection. To be transformed into a dramatic play and epic narration must be previously lyrically conceived. The moments of abstraction & extraction are provided here just with lyrical attitude. When one says of the redoubled reflection in drama it is in lyrics that its sources are to be found. Be drama a “mediated lyrics” (according to the cited A. Holz’s definition), so reciprocally one would call lyrics “a reflected drama” (das widerspiegelte Drama). Lyrical resignation reveals itself as the avoidance of direct designation replaced with periphrastic circumscriptions. Thus the evasive effect of indirect references arises that entails what has been called indirect action in drama. It is this evasiveness that becomes the essential generic feature of lyrical poem. Here is to be seen still another link connecting lyrics with the realm of puzzles and riddles as the sources of the predominance of problematic mood. The appearance of verbal masks ensues from the lyrical attitude giving rise to periphrastic circumscriptions.

These reflective properties of lyrics can be comprehended especially in its particular relation to history and historical time. For instance in the verse “Okwit” (The Fading) from the cycle “Sowim piórem” (With the Feather of an Owl) by L. Staff (1921) one finds the following lines: “kwiat róży … osypał platki” (a rose’s flower … has shed its petals), “woń się rozlała łagodna” (the beautiful fragrance is spilled over). Meanwhile the same image had been created some centuries earlier by the old Chinese poet Yuan Haowen (XIII c.) where there are also the statements that “the fragrant petals have fallen” and “the peach is full of the Spring’s respiration” (the last samples were given in Russian translation) [Арии…, 1984, 203]. The most essential is here that the verbs don’t mean what they designate in their literary meaning. They present circumlocutions and refer to the other meanings. The utterance “the petals fall” denotes here the motif of the fall, of autumn in general referring to spiritual state. It is obvious that in both cases the mentioned words designate pretexts for reflections that become independent from primary nomination and develop autonomously. Besides, it is just the partiality that provokes such elusive effects. In lyrics one simply eludes direct designation replacing them with partial details and thus gives the meanings in abstract aspect as the initial point of reflection. There appear the abstractions of flowers and petals, of smells and seasons that mean something different from their primary designation. That is why there are grounds to define elusiveness & evasiveness as the distinctive features of lyrics.

They evoke immediately musical attachments of lyrics common with drama. Being together with drama speech performatives lyrical verse also arises as the result of redoubled reflection. Lyrical attitude abstracts details from the integrity and thus enables developing reflective procedures over separate particulars of the text ignoring its totality. It is such capability of partition that enables the appearance of what is called lyrical digressions in epics, and it in its turn enables reduplicated reflection (in the manner of G. Lukacs’s double mimesis). The peculiarity of lyrical interpretation of epic or dramatic sources can be seen in its inversion which acquires the outlook of lyrical digressions. Its intrusions in drama or epics are clearly observable whereas the dramatic dialogues or epic descriptions within the tissue of lyrical poem always are reconceived in the lyrical mood. The existence of such episodes is comparable to the discussed effect of echo. Textual segments taken as an echo can be assigned to arbitrary location [Долгова, 1980, 161] and therefore belong to lyrical incognito as well. As the consequence lyrical genus traditionally demonstrates its deep attachment to the non-verbal world of music⁸⁵³. One can say of lyrical verses as about the unfinished songs with indefinite chanting ingredient. Meanwhile it is already within the verbal realm that such common dramatic and lyrical properties entail both dramatic and lyrical conventionalism. Being deviations from epic narrations these genera give rise to the systems of special conventions that build up separate verbal codes to be deciphered.

This attachment of lyrical reflection to digressions becomes possible when it goes about particulars instead of totality represented in drama. Thus one can say about lyrical particularity as opposed to dramatic and epic totality. As the relevant features for textual contents’ representation the pair totality vs. partiality arises. It is the result of the isolating abstraction that particulars acquire the load of latent meanings referring to abstract attributes. Meanwhile in lyrics the isolated particulars serve to circumscribe the problem whereas in drama they become (being quotations represented as the cues of direct speech) the initial point for the evolvement of the integral action. Continuing the cited Hegelian thoughts on a poem as a replica one would call lyrical poem “a lyrical scene” (bearing in mind also P.I. Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”). The mentioned properties of succinctness correlate with the episodic nature of a lyrical scene that is especially to be felt when used as a lyrical digression. To return to Hegel one ought to remind here the ensuing epigrammatic origin of lyrical work⁸⁵⁴. This compositional feature ensues from the partiality as the inherent lyrical mode of conceiving reality⁸⁵⁵. Then lyrical locutions can be inserted in drama or epics not only as the digressions but also as potential remarks of dramatis personae. Lyrical lines can thus be converted into attributes assigned to dramatic characters. Together with such transition the locution gets the definiteness of location and must be conceived as the enunciation of some person. One could add again, it is this personal indefiniteness of incognito that is strictly different from folklore anonymity. It is verbal masks that do always conceal “the faces” of those uttering lyrical enunciations. These features of personal indefiniteness together with the transitory traits of dramatic episode correlate with the mentioned predilection towards partiality. This lyrical generic peculiarity that has been noticed already by Hegel⁸⁵⁶ becomes decisive for the textual distinctions from the drama. Therefore it remains no place for dramatic irretrievability and anisotropy in lyrics: one can say only of specific lyrical “carelessness” in regard to the consequences of the deeds. Lyrical events taking place in abstract space, the dramatic inevitable temporality is also replaced with the mentioned lyrical perpetuation. Such perpetual consideration comes here as the inversion of separate instantaneous moments conceived in the manned of F. Schubert’s moments musicaux.

This lyrical partiality is enrooted also in its participation. Lyrics has common traits with epics as contemplation in opposite to drama (in the sense of a known opposition vita activa – vita contemplativa), at the same time participation unites it with drama (in opposite to epic distance). Therefore both drama and lyrics need compassion to be comprehended. Lyrical contemplation due to such compassion can by no means become passive: it deals with the exploration of virtual opportunities of the observed object without letting them come to existence, and dramatic activity always presumes a refusal from the present state of affairs with the goal of changing it. Dramatic hero must overtake obstacles (the so called peripety) in opposite to lyrical incognito that transports conflicts in abstract space of imagination. Conflict is proper for lyrics as well as for drama but in lyrical particulars it is latent and not manifested in opposite to drama. At the same time despite all disparateness of partial circumscriptions there must exist the key problem as far as lyrical text is a unity. This problem is not emphasized as something central and doesn’t contribute to action (as in drama) remaining a puzzle to be explored and solved by a reader in the interpretation of a lyrical verse. If drama implies phantom it is immediately present in lyrics.

A special differential generic feature as the subdivision of totality vs. partiality can be found in the publicity vs. privacy opposition. Dramatic speech is always a public one addressed for a certain community. One of the well known revelations of dramatic publicity is the already discussed effect of attendance: an audience must be present at a performance. Public intentions are the inherent quality of a playwright’s purport incarnated in dramatic message (even if it goes about drama for reading). In opposite to it lyrical work necessarily involves personal existential conditions as creative initial point. If drama deals with vital extremism it is marginal and unobservable aspects of life that penetrate lyrical utterance. Meanwhile although this opposition somehow correlates with drama and lyrics it would not be correct to identify drama with publicity only. Moreover traditionally the mentioned opposition was regarded as the correspondence to the inner dramatic subdivision in tragedy vs. comedy. In particular it was the notion of humility that was regarded together with privacy as the attribute of comedy (as for example in the poetical course “Lyre” in Kyiv from 1696 y.)⁸⁵⁷. A very peculiar lyrical species of privacy is the motif of solitude as a counterpart to dramatic attendance. Lyrical appeal is addressed to personality aware of her or his terminal solitude as the consequence of being born and dying separately. In contrast to it drama that arises as the reflection over epics has its purpose at rostrum before public audience. Subsequently lyrical contents concern inner personal qualities that represent world’s map whereas drama deals with those qualities that can be revealed and discussed for publicity. This public orientation of drama entails consequences that concern its textual peculiarities. F. Schiller’s statement on theatre as “the school of practical wisdom” (in the article “Theatre regarded as a moral institution”) gives substantiation not only for obvious parallels between dramatic tirades and rhetorical sermons but also for making them more profound. Public discussion as the adequate circumstance of dramatic action entails the already mentioned parallels of dramatic text to judicial investigation or clerical sermon so that the laws of rhetoric composition become here adaptable.

The confrontation of totality vs. partiality as the principal generic opposition of drama vs. lyrics can be attested with the rise and development of dramatic poem as a special lyrical species. It is essential that it arises from soliloquy as dramatic inner monologue that flourished in the Baroque epoch. Dramatic publicity is here tending to be reduced to personal privacy. Solitude as opposed to attendance becomes here the fundamental theme attesting the existential nature of lyrics that deals with initial and terminal epochs of human life. It was already F. Schiller who had given to his “Don Carlos” the name of this kind of poetry. Then G. G. Byron’s “Manfred” has become the paragon of the genre in world literature. Its hereditary links with mystery being obvious (as well as at G. Byron’s “Cain” and also at A. Mickiewicz’s “Dziady”), it appeals also to the so called drama for reading (German Lesedrama): thus the first “Manfred’s” stanzas make overt allusions to the respective scenes from J. Goethe’s “Faust”. In particular it is worth mentioning the dialogue between Manfred and Hunter (scene 2) who rescues the hero from suicide almost in the same manner as it had been conducted in “Faust”. The key words here are as follows: “M.: Look on me – I live. H.: This is convulsion, / And no healthful life”. Hunter acts here as a mirror for Manfred’s own reflections, so that the principal dramatis persona acquires an outlook of a lyrical hero. In its turn this lyrical incognito attests the author’s participation in dramatic poem’s development⁸⁵⁸. In spite of explicitly marked author’s absence the effect of participation can be felt in dramatic poem in the fact that one deals actually with the thorough soliloquy so that all dramatic personae become different masks that the single personality of the author’s incognito puts on. Together with all dramatic generic features the problem is here taken within private & partial personal vision of this incognito imparting it lyrical attitude.

At last this confrontation of totality vs. partiality reveals itself especially in the forms of negation prevailing in lyrics and drama. One can say of direct conflict evolving in drama and of gradual indirect contrast represented in lyrics. Dramatic personified antithesis and respective location of cues (in the “voices” of the confronted dramatis personae) designate generalized contradictions. Lyrical circumscriptions represent