The Poetics of Repesentation of the Corporeality in the Early Works of Elena Schwarz

The paper analyses the aspects of representation of corporeality in the early works of Elena Shvarz, a poetess, who belonged to so-called «underground literature». On the one hand, the status of an «underground» poet allowed not to follow the aesthetic criteria, that were proclaimed by the officials, and made it possible to speak on topics, which were forbidden in the official literature. On the other hand, such a status provoked a response from the official – this could have led to the physical violence as well. The articulated corporeality in the works of Shvarts could be perceived as an answer to such a situation. The body in her poems is constantly wounded, and this could only be partly explained by the mythological notions, interpreted through romantic concepts – according to them, wounds, the “openness” of the body enable to sustain a connection with a transcendent entity; wounding has its reverse side as the culture, that in the Soviet Union became an instrument of repression, infringes upon a poet’s body. At the same time, body, that is being permanently transformed, can create zones of aesthetical “vnye”, according to Alexei Yurchak’s terminology, where it becomes possible to resist the official cultural politics. Moreover, body is involved into interaction with the SO (significant other), whose place is vacant for a culture as well. This interaction is established through pain and violence, and none of the communicating sides can avoid it. According to Shvarts, only God, as an transcendent mediator, can withdraw all the contradictions between people, thus extracting them from an endless process of bodily alienation.