Color Designation in V.V. Mayakovsky’s Poetics: “Red” and “Yellow” (mythological implication)

Abstract

The article deals with semantics of “red” and “yellow” color in V.V. Mayakovsky’s poetics. A lot has been written about “red” color; this color is associated with the revolutionary ideas and symbols, and it is often used in Mayakovsky’s early works. However, “yellow” color is used along with “red” one and, in our opinion, it has more complicated semantics. This color is important for the poet himself and his creative life (Mayakovsky’s yellow blouse), and for his early poems where we see the clothing elements of this color. According to folkloric ideas, it is the very color which is ambivalent; it correlates with the sun and a new life, and is attributed to mourning ritual symbolism. Folklore commentary to some details in the poems “A Cloud in Trousers”, “A Man” and “Fifth International” allows us better understanding the poet’s figurative and metaphorical system.

Caucasian Text In Russian Literature: Myths And History In Poetics

“…Mayakovsky's 'diffusion' of thinking is also manifested in 'non-discrimination' of a word and thing, object and sign, so characteristic to the futurists, that the list of these "signs" turns to be quite indicative. Suppose a 'tin fish' in a certain sense is an ornate sign, a sign that looks more like the art of the Impressionists and Europe, but for a person involved in the culture of Georgia, it is natural, since it is rooted not so much in the urban space as in the national culture and world perception (for example, the image of a fish in the poem '15000 0000' or other zoomorphic things in early poems (Dudareva & Nikitina 2018). Thus, a toponym becomes a symbol that lies at the point of intersection of inner and outer worlds, of noumenal and phenomenal spaces.…”