ABSTRACT This article aims to investigate the imperial element in the poetry of Joseph Brodsky through the lenses of post-colonial studies. Its ambiguity, informed by Brodsky’s experience as a poet ...in exile, as well as his personal cultural frame, echoes that of his poetic precursors. Thus, we briefly trace the history of the connection between Russian poetry and the imperial narrative, which began with the inception of the Russian Empire itself in the 18th century. Then, we explore the nuance of the concept of empire in Brodsky’s works through the analysis of the poems Post aetatem nostram (1970), Torso (1972) and On the Independence of Ukraine (1991). As we understand it, both the chauvinistic content of the latter poem and the positive and nostalgic aspect of empire to Brodsky reveal the longevity and the strength of the Russian imperial narrative in the country’s national literature.
RESUMO O presente artigo tem por objetivo investigar o elemento imperial na poesia de Joseph Brodsky em diálogo com os estudos pós-coloniais. Sua conotação ambígua, permeada tanto por suas vivências enquanto poeta exilado, quanto por seus referenciais culturais, ecoa àquela apresentada nas obras de seus precursores poéticos. Portanto, traça-se um breve histórico da relação entre poesia e narrativa imperial no âmbito cultural russo, iniciada com a gênese do Império Russo no século XVIII. Em seguida, explora-se as nuances do conceito de império na obra brodskiana por meio da análise dos poemas Post aetatem nostram (1970), Torso (1972) e Sobre a Independência da Ucrânia (1991). Entende-se que tanto o conteúdo chauvinista deste último poema, quanto o aspecto positivo e nostálgico do império para Brodsky revelam a longevidade e a força da narrativa imperialista russa presente na literatura nacional do país.
Konstantin Batiushkov’s “An Evening at Kantemir’s” (Vecher u Kantemira, 1816) is unique as a work of literature, a document of Russian intellectual history, and a cultural and artistic manifesto. The ...“Evening” takes its cue from the popular Enlightenment genre of “dialogues with the dead,” although Batiushkov brings together people who were contemporaries rather than widely separated historical figures, as was usual. In it, the poet Antiokh Kantemir (1708-44) challenges Montesquieu’s argument from The Spirit of Laws that Russia’s harsh climate has resulted in its alleged lack of civilization. Batiushkov was rewriting history with hindsight, and one of the charming aspects of the work is its slightly humorous and lightly ironic play with anachronism, as Batiushkov presents Kantemir as marvelously prophetic of the later successes of Russian literature. Typical is his interlocutor’s statement that “It is easier to believe that the Russians will storm Paris” than that Russia could produce a Lomonosov. Batiushkov himself was with the troops that took Paris in 1814, and the recent Russian victory was surely on readers’ minds as they read this piece. “An Evening at Kantemir’s” attempted to integrate the “new” Russian literature with the eighteenth-century “classicist” literary and Enlightenment tradition. It also illustrates Batiushkov’s faith in poetry as a fundamental way to advance the cause of national progress.
"The canon of Russian poetry has been reshaped since the fall of the Soviet Union. A multi-authored study of changing cultural memory and identity, this revisionary work charts Russia’s shifting ...relationship to its own literature in the face of social upheaval. Literary canon and national identity are inextricably tied together, the composition of a canon being the attempt to single out those literary works that best express a nation’s culture. This process is, of course, fluid and subject to significant shifts, particularly at times of epochal change. This volume explores changes in the canon of twentieth-century Russian poetry from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union to the end of Putin’s second term as Russian President in 2008. In the wake of major institutional changes, such as the abolition of state censorship and the introduction of a market economy, the way was open for wholesale reinterpretation of twentieth-century poets such as Iosif Brodskii, Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandel′shtam, their works and their lives. In the last twenty years many critics have discussed the possibility of various coexisting canons rooted in official and non-official literature and suggested replacing the term ""Soviet literature"" with a new definition – ""Russian literature of the Soviet period"". Contributions to this volume explore the multiple factors involved in reshaping the canon, understood as a body of literary texts given exemplary or representative status as ""classics"". Among factors which may influence the composition of the canon are educational institutions, competing views of scholars and critics, including figures outside Russia, and the self-canonising activity of poets themselves. Canon revision further reflects contemporary concerns with the destabilising effects of emigration and the internet, and the desire to reconnect with pre-revolutionary cultural traditions through a narrative of the past which foregrounds continuity. Despite persistent nostalgic yearnings in some quarters for a single canon, the current situation is defiantly diverse, balancing both the Soviet literary tradition and the parallel contemporaneous literary worlds of the emigration and the underground. Required reading for students, teachers and lovers of Russian literature, Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry brings our understanding of post-Soviet Russia up to date."
Alexander Gorodnitsky, Dmitry Bykov, and Dmitry Danilov are among the first modern Russian poets to problematize and transfer into an aesthetic space the previously unknown disease that has spread ...across the whole world – COVID-19. Analysis of selected works has made it possible to highlight the general motif of human confrontation with the disease. The figurative system of the confrontation correlates with the aesthetics of depicting war, revolution, political races, duels, or sports matches. Gorodnitsky uses stable associations connected with the image of the Great Patriotic War. Bykov compares fear of the unknown in a pandemic with fear associated with revolutionary time, and also identifies the head of state with a deadly disease. Finally, Danilov focuses his attention on the existential dimension of the struggle, as well as on the thoughts and inner experiences of a modern man.
All three authors are mindful of Russian literary tradition. The sources of inspiration for them were mainly the Russian classics: Pushkin, Nekrasov, Blok. The lyric compositions analysed in the article can certainly be considered as a prelude to the further development of the topic of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Poetry presents the major themes, forms, genres and styles of Russian poetry. Using examples from Russia's greatest poets, Michael Wachtel draws on three ...centuries of verse, from the beginnings of secular literature in the eighteenth century up to the present day. The first half of the book is devoted to concepts such as versification, poetic language and tradition; the second half is organised along genre lines and examines the ode, the elegy, ballads, love poetry, nature poetry and patriotic verse. All poetry appears in the original followed by literal translations. This book is designed to give readers with even a minimal knowledge of the Russian language an appreciation of the brilliance of Russian poetry.
This pocketsized paperback is one of the twentytwo titles published for 2015 Hong Kong International Poetry Nights. The theme of IPHHK2015 is “Poetry and Conflict". 21 international poets from 18 ...different places are invited to participate in recitations, symposia and sharing sessions of the Poetry Nights. A recitation focusing on 10 local Hong Kong poets, “Hong Kong Cantonese Poetry Night" is included. This collection seeks to make accessible the best of contemporary international poetry with outstanding translations.
Sbornik, predstavljaemyj vnimaniju ?itatelej, soderžit materialy meždunarodnoj konferencii "Imidž - dialog - eksperiment: polja sovremennoj russkoj poezii", provedennoj pri podderžke Nemeckogo ...nau?no-issledovatel'skogo obš?estva v marte 2010 goda. Vklju?ennye v sbornik stat'i posvjaš?eny stanovleniju kanona sovremennoj russkoj poezii, metodologii istorii literatury i analizu konkretnych poeti?eskich proizvedenij. V sbornike zatragivajutsja voprosy tvor?estva ne tol'ko priznannych klassikov sovremennoj literatury - D. Prigova, O. Sedakovoj, E. Švarca, A. Voznesenskogo, no i poka ?to menee izu?ennych vidnych poetov, takich kak E. Mnacakanovoj, E. Fanajlovoj, V. Pavlovoj, A. Rodionova, I. Kovalevoj, I. Kamenkovi?, S. Tichomirova. Materialy sbornika pozvoljajut vyjavit' profil' i stanovlenie novych te?enij: neoavangarda, metarealizma, "ženskogo pis'ma", internet-poezii. Kategorii, nazvannye v zaglavii sbornika, - Imidž, Dialog, Eksperiment, Polja - dajut funkcional'nye orientiry v izu?enii složnych vzaimootnošenij meždu razli?nymi napravlenijanmi russkoj poezii poslednich tridcati let.
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