현대 러시아 문학에 나타난 ‘부재의 형이상학’ : 티무르 키비로프(Т. Кибиров)와 드미트리 프리고프(Д. Пригов)의 창작을 중심으로

Abstract

This study examines the “exaggerated aestheticization” regarding the Soviet era observed in the works of conceptualist poets such as Timur Kibirov, Dmitry Prigov, Lev Rubinstein, and so on. By summoning the “mythical history” surrounding them, that is, the “created history” and the “processed history” beyond the actual history, it performs the function of a pseudo-nostalgic narrative about the absent utopia. At this time, attention should be paid to the fact that the Soviet myth, as a kind of childhood sign used by these conceptualist poets, is contrived and distorted as the false sign produced by socialist realism. The pseudo-nostalgic narrative strategy used by conceptual artists who spent their childhood in the Stalin era is the foundation for the “non-existence” of what is viewed as “probable” and the exposure of its “absence.” On the other hand, conceptualist poets often expose a dual perspective on the narrative object and its implications by using the poetics of quotation along with this pseudo-nostalgic narrative strategy. This tendency is especially noticeable in the poems of Timur Kibirov and Dmitry Prigov. Kibirov adopts a method of exposing the absent utopia through the juxtaposition between the historical past and the pseudo-nostalgic narrative of the absent past constructed based on “made-up memories.” In addition, in Kibirov’s works, objects depicted in a more beautified or exaggerated form different from their actual appearance are often placed together with quotations from various literary works. At this time, the quotation inserted in a completely different context from the meaning of the original text becomes an excellent strategic tool to reveal the untruth and falsehood of the subject of description. Conversely, Prigov satirizes the unproductiveness and ritualized daily life of Soviet society by producing and repeating numerous variations of the original sources, borrowing mainly standardized government agency document forms and public documents as original texts. Furthermore, the poetics of quotation in Prigov’s work do not aim at directly targeting and exposing any particular situation in the past. Rather, it parodies the “empty signs” of Soviet society by using specific language or borrowing standardized text forms that dominated Soviet society. For this reason, the poetics of quotation, which conceptual poets enjoy using, do not work at all for readers who lack reading and understanding of the original text that appears in an inflected form in the quotation. This characteristic expands to the problem of the author and the reader as a second author; it serves as another reference point to classify the works of conceptual artists as the beginning of Russian postmodernism or its affiliated works. Therefore, this study pays special attention to the pseudo-nostalgic narrative strategy and poetics of quotation, which are commonly found in the creations of T. Kibirov and D. Prigov, the conceptual poets representing modern Russian literature, and how these are embodied in the creations of the two poets. We also analyze the history artificially processed in the Soviet era in the works of these poets and the method of representation of “absent utopia.” Furthermore, we examine the way these poets parody the “empty” symbols of Soviet society by borrowing various literary works and forms of documents from government agencies.