Conjuring Life: Magic in the Poetics of Marina Tsvetaeva

摘要

This article discusses the notion of magic in the poetics of Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941)against the backdrop of romanticism and Russian modernism. Magic is related to the poet’sexplorations of folklore, and also to Romantic, symbolist and futurist invocations of it.Concepts of magic are central to Tsvetaeva’s poetics; she considers conjuration to bea property of language that facilitates contact with the demonic, elemental and naturalaspects of the world. These elemental aspects are not to be considered merely as the poet’smythologisations of the world, but also as her reflections on the capacity of poetic languageto speak of what is otherwise hidden in the world.