Abstract

This dissertation demonstrates that mirroring as both a structure and a concept appears in Boris Pasternak's first well-known cycle of poetry, CecTpa MOR--XHBHb , and continues in his culminating work, AOKTOP XHBa$\Gamma$O . Scholarship on Pasternak's use of the mirroring motif has been limited to the study of imagery and/or phonemics as found in selected poems from CecTpa. As this dissertation demonstrates, however, the motif is all-pervasive. Moreover, the significance of mirroring lies in the fact that in Pasternak's world it reveals the interconnection and unity between all living beings across various boundaries and divisions. ;In order to emphasize this philosophical concept, Pasternak includes mirroring on different levels, i.e., mirroring structures, from the phonemic to the syntactic, from the image to the narrative, so that the various levels of mirroring, in fact, mirror each other. Thus, structure emphasizes concept and vice versa. Sources of influence on Pasternak's use of mirroring as a structure and concept include Vladimir Solovyov's theories on sexual love as found in his treatise "The Meaning of Love" and Andre Gide's device of mise en abyme, the duplication or mirroring of a work within itself. In addition, mirroring in the visual arts may have contributed to Pasternak's use of the motif. Mirroring not only permeates various levels but also unites the whole of CecTpa as the motif appears throughout the collection. The mirroring motif so prevalent in CecTpa not only continues but also grows more complex in XHBa$\Gamma$O both as structure and as concept: these two works, one early and one late, are mirrors of each other