The article examines the socio-cultural phenomenon of amateur birdwatching as a poetic-generating structure of a new type of artistic writing and reading practice.
The definition of the general features of the literary (primarily poetic) birdwatching optics is based on a comparison with other related optics and types of poets, who take birds into account as a significant element in different ways. These are such types as the poet-natural philosopher and the poet-naturalist (Lucretius, J. Goethe, M.V. Lomonosov, Novalis, F. Schelling, F.I. Tyutchev, N. Zabolotsky), the poet-ornithologist (V. Khlebnikov, V. Paevsky), the poet-bird catcher (G.R. Derzhavin, A.A. Fet, E. Bagritsky, B. Agris) and the poetbirdwatcher/birder (M. Fainerman, D. Chernyshev, T. Skarynkina, K. Väli, etc.). Observation of birds in their natural environment, at a distance, refusal to metaphorize the bird, recognition of its otherness, keeping records describing the long process of observation and private
reflection, are not only components of the actual practice of birdwatchers, but also potential artistic gestures of birdwatching poets. The polysemantic nature and polyfunctionality of birdwatching — it is a subculture, a sport and entertainment competition, a hobby, autotherapy, meditation, a form of socialization, and a way of exploring oneself and the world — leads to quite diverse realizations of the poetics of birdwatching.
For citation: Gorelov O.S. The poetics of birdwatching (preliminary remarks), Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2024, iss. 4, pp. 51—64.