"I Am A Convinced "Anti-Polystylist": Edison Denisov’s Oeuvre And The Problem Of The Purity Of Style
In the published pronouncements of Edison Denisov, three notions are mentioned especially often and in different contexts: light, plasticity and purity. This triad, in essence, lies at the foundation of his aesthetics. In particular, the category of purity is associated with such qualities as clarity of conception, avoidance of anecdote, of 'cheap literary fantasies’ and of any other concessions to unrefined tastes of common audience. No surprise that Denisov showed a strongly adverse attitude towards the so-called polystylistics. At the same time the polystylistics, understood as an attempt at the purity of a genuinely contemporary language through encroachment of tonal - that is, by definition, alien and largely regressive - elements, was for Denisov a peculiar temptation. The history of Denisov’s long and, perhaps, not always fully successful struggle with this temptation constitutes a very special and exciting line in his creative biography, reflecting a certain global trend. On a number of examples from Denisov’s works of the 1970s and 1980s it is shown that the 'convinced anti-polystylist’ experienced considerable difficulties in his opposition to the growing pressure of unpleasant and even hostile, but extremely influential tendencies.