Archive of Scientific Articles

Submitted: 07.09.2022

Abstract. The paper is devoted to conducting a plot-compositional, problem-thematic, rhythmic-sound analysis of J. Brodsky’s poem “He Knew That the Pain in His Shoulder...” (1964), which has not been previously subjected to literary analysis, in order to reflect on the categories of the I-persona and the he-persona. The authors of the study set themselves a scientific goal, i.e. to trace the poetic features of the narrative strategies in the poem “He Knew That the Pain in His Shoulder...”, which will reveal the main dominants of the literary world of this poem by J. Brodsky in particular and his early poetic works in general. Thus, the authors set the task to determine the role of poetic illeism, the technique of substituting the I-persona for the he-persona used by J. Brodsky. Scientific novelty of the study lies in involving the text of J. Brodsky’s poetic work that has not been previously subjected to scientific reflection, has not become the subject of special scientific analysis. As a result, it has been proved that the substitutive tactics of displacing the lyrical I-persona by the objectified he-persona are connected with the author’s intention to overcome the limits of external life-likeness and bring mystical lines of otherworldly existence into the text, allowing the researchers to look at the death of the poem’s persona in other axiological coordinates.

Key words and phrases: И. Бродский, стихотворение «Он знал, что боль в плече…», прием иллеизма, я-герой и он-герой, J. Brodsky, poem “He Knew That the Pain in His Shoulder...”, technique of illeism, I-persona and he-persona