Поэма Марии Степановой "Проза Ивана Сидорова". Полистилистика в круговороте сюжетности (Poèma Marii Stepanovoj "Proza Ivana Sidorova. Polistilistika v krugovorote sjužetnosti)

Maria Stepanova’s long poem (1017 lines) "Proza Ivana Sidorova" (The Prose of Ivan Sidorov, 2005) is set, at first, in the wider context of a renewed interest for long poetic forms characterizing the first two decades of the new century. A theoretic explanation of the trend is given by Svarovsky and Rovinsky’s New Epic hypothesis, to which I argue The Prose of Ivan Sidorov may refer. In this paper I investigate the main features of the poem: a mostly fantastic and mystic atmosphere; a vague and elusive plot; a reticent and unreliable first person narrator; indefiniteness and interchangeability of moral and ethical issues; intense and fascinating polymetric rhythm, focused on highly imaginative rhymes; and dense and evocative paronimic texture. I shall discuss, on the basis of an overall ironic scent, fluidity of the plot, pastiche of genres and dispersed authorial role, a close positioning of the poem to the aesthetics of postmodernism (despite an indefinite, but clearly perceivable metaphysical tension).