Nikitska K. The Genre of Narrative Poem in N. Gumilev’s works

The thesis studies the narrative poem in Gumilev’s works in the context of Acmeism movement formation and the dynamics of the genre development in the literature of the turn of the century. The main research method is the historical-typological method (according to M. Bakhtin’s terminology). The elements of intertextual, mythopoetic, and motive analysis were also used as research methods. In order to understand the genre specifics and origins of Gumilev’s narrative poems, the key features of the historical narrative poem forms, which most influenced the poet’s worldview, were studied. A review of critical works showed that Gumilev’s narrative poems are rarely a subject of special research and are studied either in the context of all the author's work or in the context of a certain period. Experiments in the field of narrative poetry are also considered by researchers mainly from the point of inclination to one of the literary categories – epic or lyric – rather than from the point of the genre. In addition, when studying the poetry of this author there are often controversial conclusions about the genre attribution: some small poems are called narrative poems, and vice versa — some of the big poems are considered narrative. These three features are the main problems in the study of Gumilev’s narrative poem heritage.