Russian Intertext in Pounds’s Poem “The Cantos” (The Image of the Russian Revolution in Canto XVI

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Canto XVI fragment from E. Pound's poem The Cantos, which depicts the events of the Russian February and October revolutions of 1917. As a necessary context, the political views of the American author are given, as well as the memories of Russian and foreign eyewitnesses of the events, which allow us to assess the objectivity of the depiction of ambiguous historical facts in the poem, and in addition to trace the sources from which Pound drew information. The author notes the originality of the punk style of presentation, which violates the chronological sequence of events, as well as the inclusion of the events of the Russian revolutions in the context of the era of the World War I. The conclusion is made about E. Pound's critical attitude to the Russian Revolution due to his specific political views.