The subject of this research is the corpus of auto-reflexive texts of the contemporary poet Vyktor Ivaniv – his research, essayistic, literary-critical writings. The goal consists in reconstruction of V. Ivaniv’s poetology, which implies the system of representations on ultimate characteristics of poetry, poeticity, and poetic. It is established that poetological system of V. Ivaniv can be described as an example of radicalization of “magic” intentions of historical avant-garde. The novelty of V. Ivaniv consists in reassessment of the ideas of transformation of the world using such term as “utopic”. Having determined the genetic affinity of the constructs of Russian avant-gardists with the ideas of Nicholas of Cusa, Rene Descartes and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Ivaniv highlights their rootedness in the traditions of European rationalism. The novelty of the research lies in the comprehensive analysis, which allows restoring a universal system of representations on poetry based on the comparison of texts belonging to different types of discourse. Formulation of aesthetic principles in Ivaniv’s works is inseparable from philological reflection over the nature of symbol and its typology. Analyzing the principles of the construction of image at different stages of the establishment of avant-garde mentality, V. Ivaniv creates the concept of iconic symbol as a substitute of the event and a semantic operator, which replaces false meanings with true ones. According to Ivaniv, transgressive introduction to the truth of being – ecstatic and dangerous – comprises the essence of the poetic.