MOTIFS OF STRUGGLING WITH GOD IN V. MAYAKOVSKY'S POEM ?A CLOUD IN TROUSERS?

The article examines the problem of struggling with God in the works of Vladimir Mayakovsky, with a special focus on his poem A Cloud in Trousers. The poem's original title ? The Thirteenth Apostle ? presents the quintessence of its content and witnesses the rise of the struggle with God and the poet's protest against the Church dogma. Our article looks at a number of theomachic motifs in A Cloud in Trousers, as well as the means of their transformation in the futuruist world, A zoomorphic image of the Universe which appears at the ending of the poem lacks both God and Man. The conflict with the world that had forgotten its God drives the lyrical protagonist into the 'madness' of struggle against God. This conflict keeps bringing him back to Golgotha, surrounded by the crowd who chooses to let Barabbas go. This is the highest tragedy of Mayakovsky's poem.