Мотив противостояния человека болезни COVID-19 в новейших стихотворениях Александра Городницкого, Дмитрия Быкова, Дмитрия Данилова

Alexander Gorodnitsky, Dmitry Bykov, and Dmitry Danilov are among the first modern Russian poets to problematize and transfer into an aesthetic space the previously unknown disease that has spread across the whole world – COVID-19. Analysis of selected works has made it possible to highlight the general motif of human confrontation with the disease. The figurative system of the confrontation correlates with the aesthetics of depicting war, revolution, political races, duels, or sports matches. Gorodnitsky uses stable associations connected with the image of the Great Patriotic War. Bykov compares fear of the unknown in a pandemic with fear associated with revolutionary time, and also identifies the head of state with a deadly disease. Finally, Danilov focuses his attention on the existential dimension of the struggle, as well as on the thoughts and inner experiences of a modern man. All three authors are mindful of Russian literary tradition. The sources of inspiration for them were mainly the Russian classics: Pushkin, Nekrasov, Blok. The lyric compositions analysed in the article can certainly be considered as a prelude to the further development of the topic of the Coronavirus pandemic.