of Research
The creative biography and the study history of the heritage of
Arseniy Nesmelov is considered in this article. We trace a change in perception
of his personality and works by literary critics. Nesmelov enjoyed undoubted
authority in his environment during his lifetime, but he was not very famous at
home, although writers such as B. Pasternak, M. Tsvetaeva, L. Martynov,
S. Markov, V. Itin appreciated his creativity. Оnly few works were published
from the rich heritage of Nesmelov in Soviet times, due to political and ideological
reasons: his belonging to the White movement, and in the 1930s. – to the
Japanese Military Mission. His work began to attract a wide interest from the
end of the 1980s. Particular attention is drawn to the lyrics, more poetically mature
in comparison with prose. The objects of research are various aspects (subject,
imaginative and motivic systems, contextual connections, incorporating the
specifics of interaction with Chinese culture, etc.). It is noted that the most frequent
themes in the works of Nesmelov are related to war and emigration. The
images of Russia and China also can be interesting, showing, on the one hand,
the poet’s perception of his exile, his homesickness, but on the other, his assimilation
of the exotic reality of China in his poems and prose. The study of
Nesmelov’s prose has been updated in recent years, after the publication of his
collected works, including, in addition to his lyrics, short stories dispersed
among various Far Eastern publications.
Despite the fact that A. Nesmelov today is the most studied author of the
eastern branch of Russian emigration, many phenomena in his poetry and prose
remain only the intended by researchers, which leaves rich perspectives for
studying various areas of his works.
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of Research // Критика и семиотика. 2019. № 1. Pp. 254–274. DOI: 10.25205/2307-1737-2019-1-254-274.