The poetics of the intermediate world in the lyrics of Elena Schwartz in the collection "Mundus Imaginalis"

The research is dedicated to the poetics of the intermediary world (mundus imaginalis) in the poetry of Elena Schwartz, using the eponymous collection from 1996 as the material. The analysis focuses on the formation of an autonomous poetic space that arises at the intersection of reality, mythology, and the personal experience of the poetess; particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of the author mask and active imagination, through which the lyrical subject constructs an independent intermediary realm where the real and mythical, the internal and external continuously transition into one another. A multidimensional space emerges where the personal fate of the poetess intertwines with cultural-historical and mythological layers, forming a complex fabric of meanings. The artistic world of Elena Schwartz reveals itself in this approach as a holistic system: imagination acts not as a subjective fantasy, but as a creative force that generates an independent ontological level of existence. Methodologically, the work is based on textological and structural-semantic analysis of three key works from the collection: the cycle "Kinfiya," the poem "The Writings of Arno Tsart," and the cycle "The Staircase with Leaky Landings." The mechanisms of spatial transformation, the alchemical overlay of matter and time, and the rigid architectonics of consciousness are examined in relation to the concept of mundus imaginalis by Henri Corbin. The novelty of the research lies in the specific description of the mechanisms for constructing the intermediary world in Elena Schwartz's work. In "Kinfiya," through the author mask and the "inside out" mechanism, Roman space is transformed into a living, tormented body of the empire. In "The Writings of Arno Tsart," Petersburg life becomes an alchemical laboratory: a material detail (sand, a drop of substance) acquires properties of spiritual transformation and nonlinear time. In "The Staircase with Leaky Landings," the rigid vertical architectonics of consciousness serves as a framework for total mutual penetration of body, myth, and cosmos. The poetic space of the collection presents itself as a multilayered dynamic system where reality and imagination, history and personal destiny, body and cosmos form a self-sufficient field of spiritual becoming and meaning-making. Thus, the research shows how Schwartz's poetry creates an autonomous Mundus Imaginalis.