PROTOMOTIVE OF THINKING IN DERZHAVIN'S POETRY

Abstract

The article examines Derzhavin's poems dedicated to thinking. This thematic line has not previously attracted the attention of researchers. It is revealed in the material of a dozen poems and interpreted as a protomotive—the germ of the motive of thinking in 18th-century poetry, its initial embodiment. It is shown that the lexemes "thought," "mind," and "understanding" entered the vocabulary of poets in the age of rationalism, starting with Kantemir. For Derzhavin, "mind" is one of the declared values, often in unities: mind and heart, mind and conscience, mind and spirit—such combinations testify to Derzhavin's ideal of a holistic personality. This ideal is embodied in the image of Felice. Derzhavin made the first observations of the mind: a thought whirling in chimeras, a sleepy consciousness. The poet's first thought about the mind (ode "God") is an affirmation of the inability of the mind to comprehend God. With this negative statement, the formation of the motive of thinking in Russian poetry begins. Affirming the value of the mind despite the fact that there is no positive semantic content in the motive content allows us to speak about the protomotive of thinking and connect it with the rational nature of thinking of the 18th century.

Extended Abstract

This article investigates the thematic line of thinking in the poetry of Gavrila Derzhavin, conceptualizing it as a proto-motive—the germinal, initial form of what would later develop into a significant and complex motif in 19th-century Russian poetry. The analysis is centered on a selection of Derzhavin's works where lexical units such as "thought" (mysl), "mind" (um), and "understanding" (razumeniye) are prominent, tracing their incorporation into poetic diction from the era of Kantemir through the Age of Rationalism.

For Derzhavin, "mind" is a consistently declared value. However, it is rarely presented in isolation. The poet's ideal is that of a holistic personality, evident in recurring syntagmatic pairs such as "mind and heart," "mind and conscience," and "mind and spirit." This integrative ideal finds its most complete embodiment in the figure of Felitsa, who is depicted as a model of wisdom where "spirit and mind" are in harmonious unity.

Beyond these declarative valuations, Derzhavin’s poetry contains some of the first poetic observations on the internal workings of the intellect. He describes a thought "circling in chimeras" and a "sleepy consciousness," offering nascent insights into mental life. Nevertheless, the foundational and most definitive statement on the mind in Derzhavin’s oeuvre, as articulated in his seminal ode "God" (1784), is a negative one: it is the affirmation of reason's ultimate inability to comprehend the divine.

The article posits that it is precisely with this negative assertion—the affirmation of the mind's value coupled with a denial of its capacity for substantive metaphysical cognition—that the formation of the "motive of thinking" in Russian poetry begins. This specific configuration, where the motif asserts a value but lacks a positive, developed semantic content, justifies its classification as a proto-motive. The author explains this distinctive feature by contextualizing it within the rational, discursive (rassudochnyy) character of 18th-century thought, which prioritized logical deduction and clear didactic statement over the intuitive contemplation and epistemological exploration that would later flourish.

Thus, Derzhavin’s treatment of thinking is identified as the crucial precursor to a fully realized poetic motif. This proto-motive, established in the rationalist soil of the 18th century, would later blossom under the transformative influence of German idealist philosophy into a rich and self-reflective motivic complex in the poetry of the Wisdom-lovers (lyubomudry) and subsequent generations of Russian poets.