Lea Pild. Textbook and «Other» Fet in Fyodor Sologub’s Lyrics of 1890

Being a schoolteacher by trade Fyodor Sologub must have been familiar with textbook Russian poetry in a more substantial way than other famous Symbolists who did not serve society at school. We do not know of Sologub’s pronouncements on this category of poetic texts. However, analysis of his lyrics from the 1890-ies gives reason to presume that this kind of verse (by virtue of its being more familiar to the general reader) was specially marked for him and in a sense opposed the «other», not axiomatic, poetic texts. This opposition becomes obvious in the allusion stratum of Sologub’s lyrics that refers to Fet. As one might presume, citation or parody of the textbook Russian poetic works could have become for Sologub a «channel» through which the «orthodox» Decadent established contact with the general reader.