Reading Akhmatova: on the Pathway to Finding Self

Based on P. Ricoeur’s theory of reading, the article provides a literary solution to the problem of self-identiёcation, leading to the issue of a poet’s “narrative identity”. It is proved by the analysis of “Reading “Hamlet””, Anna Akhmatova’s early poem. Analysis of Akhmatova’s reёguration and study of this poetic conёguration have showed the poet’s desire to achieve selfhood by identifying the life-world with Shakespeare’s texts. The article presents the comparison of cultural meanings, characteristic to Shakespeare’s characters (Ophelia and Hamlet) from the point of view of Russian and European readers, Anna Akhmatova’s predecessors and contemporaries. Special attention is paid to possible identiёcation of Akhmatova with Elizabeth Siddal, one of the characters of the European cultural ёeld, and to her ёctional image of herself as Shakespeare’s Ophelia. Interpolating certain meanings of the read and interpreted cultural texts on the predicates of her own life situation of 19031912, Akhmatova, ёrst of all, clariёes her relationships with Nikolai Gumilev and solves the problem of preserving her own identity.

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