Stylistic devices of contrast in poetry of alexander pushkin and evgeny baratynsky

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify similarities and differences in implementation of contrast principle in works written by Alexander Pushkin and Evgeny Baratynsky; to identify preferences of the authors in choosing linguistic means to create stylistic figures. The empirical base of the study is represented by 753 poems written by Alexander Pushkin and 246 poems by Evgeny Baratynsky. Contexts with the stylistic figures of contrast were extracted by applying a continuous sample method. Semantic-stylistic, comparative methods, methods of specific linguistic facts, quantitative data processing and linguistic observation were used during the study. The article describes the most frequent and generalized types of contrast used by both authors: antithesis, oxymoron and acrothesis. It was found out that Alexander Pushkin typically uses antithesis in the form of a syntactic parallelism. The antithesis in Evgeny Baratynsky's poems is based mainly on syntactic symmetry. Both poets use antonyms derived from different roots in order to express the paradox in an oxymoron. Furthermore, Evgeny Baratynsky often uses cognates-antonyms with the prefix bez-/bes-while Alexander Pushkin prefers to express the paradox via syntactic negation. It is noticed that both poets often use an acrothesis as contrastive negation with a conjunction combination not⋯but, i.e. they prefer to start with the negation which corresponds to the Russian poetic tradition. However, Alexander Pushkin usually chooses conjunctions as an acrothesis. Evgeny Baratynsky prefers a stylistic variant without a conjunction. This article aims to expand the knowledge of Alexander Pushkin and Evgeny Baratynsky aesthetic systems. It contributes to determination of certain individual stylistic language features of poetscontemporaries.