At the boundary. Tatiana Repina

Abstract

The article analyzes the motifs, imagery, and plot structure of three poetic collections authored by Tatiana Repina, one of the remarkable poets of ‘the thirty-year-old generation:’ Monograph. Written by a Single Person [Monografiya. Pishet odin chelovek] (2013), Without Chapters [Bez glav] (2014), and Air Density [Plotnost vozdukha] (2018). In her detailed study of the plot structure and distinctive characteristics of Repina’s poetics, Kadochnikova emphasizes the concept of boundaries as being of principal importance for understanding Repina’s poetics. The concept is revealed through the problem of a geographical identity and the lyrical heroine’s gender ambivalence, the ‘childlike/adultlike’ dichotomy, and the motif of puppetry and theatricality. A selection exemplifying the ‘local’ (Izhevsk-based) text serves the critic as a starting point for interpretation of Repina’s lyrical poetry, which Kadochnikova expands to include poems devoted to St. Petersburg, the image of the ‘generation of the 1990s,’ and problems of contemporary poetry at large. The resulting study uses Repina’s works to address the issue of boundaries in modern poetry.