THE APOCALYPTIC MIND: NATURE, RITUALISTIC GONGS AND IMPERIAL AFFLICTIONS IN THE WORKS OF EMILY DICKINSON AND MARINA TSVETAEVA

The present essay is a comparative critical study of select works by Emily Dickinson and Marina Tsvetaeva, the former considered as a sui generis precursor of modernism in the American context, the latter – amidst the few perfect masters of stylistic compression and expressionist avant-gardism of modernist thought and writing in the Russian context. Irrespective of the fact that their lives and work diverged not only chronologically, but also in terms of their geographical, historical and cultural specificities, I will nevertheless attempt to deduce a concept of what I will call “similar typological schemes and perceptions” which they employed to build up their poetry. The writings which I have chosen are, in my view, emblematic of their work and best demonstrate the exquisite quality of their rare sensibilities, which might be said to exist in their own right. I have sought to organize my research around overlapping recurrent themes, visions, imagery and messages, as much as around the similar devices and approaches both poets employ to give expression to their extremely original perspectives on life and writing.