The Reflections of Russian Culture in The Cantos by Ezra Pound

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of references to Russian culture in the text of the poem by the American author E. Pound The Cantos. The references in Canto LXXIX to the surname of the artist of the "Russian Ballet" S. Diaghilev – Serafima Astafieva are studied in detail. A veiled reference to the image of this ballerina in Canto LXXVII is also considered, in which Astafieva appears as a certain Grishkin– the heroine of T. S. Eliot's poem Whispers of Immortality. As a necessary comment, the article presents E. Pound's general understanding of the world historical process as an arena of struggle between the capitalist usurious civilization and the mythologized epochs of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Ancient China, etc. rooted in tradition. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the relationship between the art of the Russian artist and the Byzantine art of the era of Emperor Justinian. In conclusion, the author concludes about the importance of Russian ballet art in Pound's historiosophical concept.