Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
LITERATUROVEDCHESKII
ZHURNAL
The Journal of Literary History and Theory
Peer-reviewed Academic Journal

WHY IS THERE A HORROR OF THE FLOOR/SEX IN THE LIGHT BULB? TO THE INTERPRETATION OF THE POEM BY JOSEPH BRODSKY “I SAD FATE PLAYS A GAME WITHOUT A SCORE…”

Ranchin A.M.

Andrei M. Ranchin, DSc in Philology, Professor of the Department of the History of Russian Literature, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1st building of humanitarian faculties, Lomonosov Moscow State University, GSP-1, Leninskie Gory, 119991, Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0414-5106 E-mail: aranchin@mail.ru

Abstract

The subject of analysis in this article is the poem by Joseph Brodsky “I said fate plays a game without a score…”, first of all, his lines “I kept saying that in a light bulb the horror of floor [or: of sex], / that love, like life, is devoid of a verb”. It is shown that the lexeme “pol” connects two homonymous meanings – “lower covering, flooring in a room, in a house” and “a set of features associated with childbearing, distinguishing men and women”. It is proved that the main value is the second one. It is directly connected with the metaphysics of sex characteristic of Brodsky’s poetry and with the idea of the sexual act, depersonalizing and incapable of providing psychological and spiritual contact.

Keywords

I.A. Brodsky; homonymy; metaphysics; existential motives; sexual code.

Recieved

20.02.2022

Accepted

10.03.2022

For citation

Ranchin, A.M. “Why is there a horror of the floor/sex in the light bulb? To the interpretation of the poem by Joseph Brodsky ‘I said fate plays a game without a score…’ˮ. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 2(56), 2022, pp. 78–88. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2022.56.05

DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2022.56.05

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