«Ours» (Self-Quotes and Self-Reminiscences) as «Foreign» in Marina Tsvetaeva’s
Letters and Diary Texts
The article deals with semantic transformations of the forms of
intertextuality such as quotes, allusions and reminiscences as «own» texts for an
adequate comprehension of meaning, which is implied by the author , by an
addressee of the letters, and as a means of self-reflection in diary texts, plus selfreminiscences
and self-quotes as «foreign» texts for creation of the meaning and
assertion of authorship of the thought and image in Marina Tsvetaeva’s letters,
notebooks and summary notebooks.
«Foreign» and «ours» in letters, notebooks and summary notebooks by
M. I. Tsvetaeva are applied consciously and conditioned by the nature of communication.
As for an epistolary dialogue with an addressee, intertextual phenomena are
necessary to M. I. Tsvetaeva in order to convince her addressee of the correctness
of her author’s position, whereas the addressee possesses background data
related to their meaning in precedent texts and to Tsvetaeva’s creation.
Notes in notebooks occur in a spontaneous way under the influence of external
events and the internal need to record a horrible thought, finding, association
or image, to advance an opinion about something important for the writer.
That’s why reminiscences of «foreign» texts (the Bible, proverbs and sayings,
literary texts of the Russian classics and contemporary poets) occur on their
own, as a thought is being put down, and further developed in the author’s considerations,
is analyzed, clarified and become a basis of the author’s fixed
phrases, proverbs and sayings. The most valuable items from the letters and notebooks are brought into
summary notebooks; for this reason, previously formulated thoughts are followed
by the author’s notes and comments.
Marina Tsvetaeva uses self-quotes in her letters and diaries as a means of reflections
about her own creation: a successful «finding» is actualized within new
conditions and becomes a cause for a dialogue of the author with herself at different
times, that is, between the author who once upon a time wrote the text
quoted here completely or in fragment, and between the same author who quotes
in a letter or diary. A self-quote is introduced therein as the basic thesis supported
with clarifications and comments, or as a «starting point» in the dialogue
about her creation with an addressee of the letter or a proof of her own rightness
many years later in her summary notebook. Tsvetaeva does not ever try to convince
anybody in anything in her summary notebooks, yet she confirms the right
after her for a previously formulated idea, authorship of a thought, image or
formula which even years later do not lose their novice and profundity of sense.
Further consideration of the «foreign» and «ours» in non-fiction texts by
M. I. Tsvetaeva may be continued in the following lines: 1) typology and literary
and folklore sources of «foreign» intertextual phenomena, 2) dependence of selfquote
upon the nature of relations with the letter’s recipient and creative tasks.
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«Ours» (Self-Quotes and Self-Reminiscences) as «Foreign» in Marina Tsvetaeva’s
Letters and Diary Texts // Критика и семиотика. 2018. № 1. Pp. 79–96. DOI: 10/25205/2307-1737-2018-1-79-96.