KEY TENDENCIES OF TRIOLET EVOLUTION IN THE RUSSIAN POETRY OF THE 18TH-21ST CENTURIES

Abstract

The article contains description, analysis and interpretation of triolets of Russian poets of the 18th-21st centuries. In terms of availability of relevant attributes of the form the authors distinguish triolent-invariant, "fixed", "free", modified triolets. The triolet-invariant is the octette for two rhymes abaaabab or abbaabab with interchanging male and female catalexes. Verse 1 completely repeats in verses 4 and 7, and verse 2 in verse 8. The system of set repetitions forms a composition-image net, refrains are perceived as natural and are the source of a new context. The plot-composition system of the triolet-invariant unites ideas of closedness (verses 2 and 4 end with the end-of-sentence character) and openness (verses 7 and 8 are not a separate syntactic unity). The use of the triolet-invariant in the Russian poetry has a limited nature. Forms with a different grade of deviation from the invariant model - "fixed" and "free" are represented more broadly. The "fixed" triolet is the octette in which non-observance of the rhythmical-syntactic division set by the genre tradition is permitted while preserving the lexical-syntactic identity of refrain verses. Availability of variable lexical-syntactic repetition in refrain verses refers triolets of such kind in the classification to "free" ones. Invariant, "fixed" and "free" triolets realise eight probabilistically possible rhythmical-syntactic models each of which, in its turn, may use different variations of lexical and syntactical elements in the composition of refrain verses. Evolution of the triolet in the Russian poetry resulted in modified triolets which have a number of deviations from the tradition: a number of lines differing from 8 (docked triolets, triolets with cauda, rimmed triolets), a modified manner of rhyming (mono-rhythmic, Japanese triolets), a modified position of refrain lines within the frames of the whole (reversed triolets). There are examples of the constructivist re-thinking of forms (extended triolet, rondolets, triols, triolet-octaval form, etc.). The triolet actively interacts both with contiguous genre forms (triolet-octaval sonnet, triolet rondel, madrigal) and within its own form, being associated into poetry books, lyric cycles and genre-stanza formations (triolet "garlands", fairy tales, ballads in triolets). Within lyric cycles the triolet to a greater extent realises its genre potential, in genre-stanza formations it acts as the stanza - a structural unit of the whole. The history of the triolet in the Russian poetry shows that gradually it began to represent a complicated, dialectically integral synthetic unity whose formation was facilitated by the orientation on systemacity. Non-performance or alteration of any structural norms from the code of traditional rules which provide for aesthetic systemacity has not resulted in the destruction of the triolet as a genre and a stanza. The triolet remains easily recognisable and univocally identifiable