Iosif Brodski i Nikołaj Rubcow – o tożsamościowych kontekstach dwóch wierszy

The paper deals with two poems: “Ты поскачешь во мраке…” by Joseph Brodsky, and “Я буду скакать по следам задремавшей отчизны…” by Nikolay Rubtsov. Analyzing some features of these poems and comparing similarities in both poets’ biographies, the author states the significant difference between them. Rubtsov, in his opinion, has an identity typical for pre-modern subjectivity. It is conventional, stereotypical, and conservative, full of faith in idealized old Russian values. Brodsky’s self-defining is in this aspect close to late modernity. It is liquid, all the time in movement, never convinced about self-identity.

“A Part of Speech” by Joseph Brodsky: Bilingualism as a Creative Method in Poetry

This article is an attempt of textological conceptualization of an interlingual transfer (doubling) of a literary text. This transfer, in case it has been done by the author him/herself, is traditionally called self-translation, yet it can also by qualified as an adaptation of the “old” text to the perceptive abilities of the “new” recipient, i.e. a collective reader representing a different national and cultural medium and bearing its values as a prevalent aesthetic waymark. Special importance in the above process is attached to such a significant feature of any literary text of high quality as its elasticity. The textological approach to the scientific understanding of the differentlanguage text binary is often complemented by the bilinguological categorization of the subject, i.e. a text of poetry and, at the same time, a poetic cycle. From this standpoint, the mode of primary/secondary character of the two interconnected texts might lose its substantial preciseness. Further on, the article scrutinizes a landmark (for the Russian culture) literary text and its self-translation: the poetic cycle “A Part of Speech” by Joseph Brodsky. Four conceptual dominants of the cycle, with regard to their axiological hierarchy, are distinguished: 1) space/distance – location – oblivion; 2) time (epoch) – history – event – oblivion; 3) love – breakup – oblivion; 4) speech – art – extension – immortality. Further, a comparative analysis of their different-language verbalization is carried out. It is stated that Brodsky’s creation of this bilingual cycle reflects his striving for a cultural adaptation of each version to the background knowledge, historical experience, principles, traditions, aesthetic attitudes and, generally, sentiments of different groups of readers. In some cases this is done by means of the national language only, in other cases by the general complication of the poems’ figurative fabric.

Marina Tsvetaeva et Lev Chestov

Cet article présente une exploration d’une proximité étroite entre les visions du monde de Marina Tsvetaeva et Lev Chestov et de leur philosophie de base manifestée dans leur créativité poétique et philosophique. Nous analysons cette proximité en termes de philosophie du refus et de philosophie de la tragédie, alors que l’ordre mondial existant est passionnément et catégoriquement rejeté. Ce niveau de refus et de non-conformité semble remarquable dans le contexte de la tradition culturelle russe de la compassion, de la réconciliation tragique et de la gratitude absolue, du refus en termes éthiques plutôt qu’esthétiques (ce que le romantisme russe démontre incontestablement). Si on la juge par des mesures ordinaires, une telle attitude se démarque et semble effrayante, même à l’intérieur du fameux maximalisme de la culture russe. On constate qu’il y a deux niveaux où la vie et l’héritage de Tsvetaeva peuvent être appréciés, un niveau quotidien et un niveau poétique. Il faut souligner la nécessité de se souvenir toujours de l’énorme prix existentiel que Tsvetaeva a payé pour son génie poétique non seulement par sa mort tragique, mais aussi par tous les jours de sa vie, quand elle se soumettait constamment à un équivalent du Jugement Dernier, si l’on cite Joseph Brodsky.

Mikhail Kuzmin and the Underground

This article focuses on the role of the poet, playwright, and novelist Mikhail Kuzmin as one of the first underground authors, whose circle in the 1920s–1930s became a prototype for analogous communities in the 1960s–1970s. Kuzmin had been associated with OBERIU and Nikolai Kliuev during his lifetime. The posthumous influences of Kuzmin’s poetry and drama are detected and discussed in the works of such underground authors as Vsevolod Petrov, Andrei Egunov, Joseph Brodsky, and Evgenii Rein, as well as such “in-betweeners” as Aleksandr Kushner and Oleg Chukhontsev.

Bilingual literary creativity: language shift or code-switching?

The writing of texts in more than one language by the same author referred to as a literary creation has a long history. It can be both the original composition and a self-translation by the author with a certain degree of revision of the initial text. The purpose of this article is to consider some cases of author’s bilingualism / polylingualism and analyze its varieties. The material for the research includes literary creations of a number of authors who lived in different historical periods (Joseph Flavius, Ulrich von Hutten, Oscar Wilde, Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph Brodsky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Sholom Aleichem, etc.). Usually, in cases where the author uses two / more languages, the opposition of a native language / the second (third, etc.) language is observed. There is also a particular issue of treating the possibility of having more than one native language. In general, in such cases we deal with colloquial / modern languages used by corresponding communities as means of communication. However, there are also situations where one member of a bilingual pair is a language of the culture (Latin and new languages at the Renaissance, Yiddish and Hebrew among a number of Jewish authors, etc.). In any case, the question may arise as to how balanced this kind of bilingual creativity is. Using the categories of sociolinguistics, this issue can be formulated as follows: has the writer retained the code-switching (if yes, then what is the relative importance of both languages in his creative activity) and has it not resulted in a language shift, that is, an almost complete transition to one of the members of the bilingual pair.

“Mexican Divertimento” by Joseph Brodsky: a Culture-TroughLanguage Analysis

Te article provides a comprehensive culture-through-language analysis of the poetical cycle “Mexican Divertimento” by Joseph Brodsky. It describes the basic principles of its poems’ construction, their stylistic features, interconnections between them, as well as with further elements of the poet’s creative heritage and other authors’ works. Te author of the article analyzes the place and role of the IberoAmerican theme in Brodsky’s poetry, which has not previously been reflected in experts’ works. Brodsky’s reception of Mexican culture and history episodes from different periods demonstrates his deep knowledge of these issues, which before the trip to Mexico could hardly have been familiar to him. At the same time, the author of the article outlines a number of inaccuracies and errors in history, toponymy, onomastics and other areas, wondering about their intentional or accidental character. Based on the results of the analysis, the article concludes that the cycle under study, while remaining self-sufcient and self-valuable in form and content, organically fts into Brodsky’s stylistic and ideological paradigm of the 1970s-1980s. At the same time, the analyzed text not only has a high artistic value, but also in linguo-cultural terms reflects the peculiarities of Mexican culture, its history, as well as Russian-Mexican cultural ties.

Information Technologies, Reading, and the Future of Higher Education

The article addresses the challenge for universities and colleges to prepare students for the world they inhabit through relevant course offerings and new approaches to teaching. Unfortunately, these structures of higher education still resemble chapels, where the professor is ‘priest,’ and with a pedagogy that is informed by monologue, methodological nationalism, and a general lack of awareness of the rapidly changing social and physical world around us. Starting with the Gutenberg revolution, and following the ideas of Marshall McLuhan, Sven Birkerts and Joseph Brodsky,the article approaches the consequences of the new information technologies that are profoundly rewiring our minds and replacing our ability to think critically. The author asks: what might education look like today? How might we challenge young people to learn how to think? The first task appears to critique and transform the political architecture of classrooms and the teacher centeredness of pedagogical activity, replacing monologue with dialogue. Students need to be shown how to critically distance themselves from the seductions of information technologies, and educational institutions should return to requiring deep reading and discussion of extended narratives.

On literary imitations of two imperative poems by Joseph Brodsky

This article concentrates on the problem of literary interactions. It studies connections between Joseph Brodskys imperative poems Ne vykhodi iz komnaty (Dont leave your room, 1970) and Nazidanie (Cautionary Advice, 1987), and their imitations. Those imitations were composed by both amateur and professional authors. The research objective is to define the character of similarities, the latter being mainly manifested at the rhythmic, speech and ideological levels. The methodology is based upon an empirical approach to the text; the specific methods are prosody analysis, comparative analysis, analysis of the motive structure. Two types of imitation of the said pre-texts are distinguished in the study. The first one is reflective feeble imitation represented by amateur texts written by web authors. Amateur poets create simplified variations of Ne vykhodi iz komnaty that became a lockdown hymn in the spring of 2020. Conscious support of a renowned poets work seems to legitimate creation of an amateur piece with its further placement on the web. The other type of imitation is a poetic dialogue. In spite of the fact that the author mainly employs ready-made compositional and speech patterns and lyrical and narrative motives, he develops and combines them in his own manner. M. Vatutinas poem S chuzhimi ne razgovarivai, zhizn u tebya odna (Dont talk to strangers, youve got just the only one life) may be viewed as a rhythmic and semantic paraphrase of Brodskys Nazidanie followed by definite transformations. Conceivably it cannot be referred to the so-called secondary texts in spite of its strong connection to Brodskys poems.

By Way of Old Petersburg: Desmond O’Grady and Russian Poetry

The article takes on a direction which has great potential for further studies of contemporary Irish poetry: studying the work of Irish poets through their relation to Russian literature. It focuses on the reception and reimagining of Russian poetry in the work of Desmond O’Grady, one of the leading figures in Irish poetry, who started writing in mid-1950s. The article studies three poems by O’Grady which are addressed to his Russian counterparts: “Missing Andrei Voznesensky,” “Joseph Brodsky Visits Kinsale,” and “My City,” a translation from Anna Akhmatova’s “Poem without a Hero.” None of these poems has yet been subject of thorough critical analysis. Each of the poems has become a signpost on O’Grady’s poetic map and an important element of his own “private mythology.” When analysed in the wider context of Irish poetry, they help form a clearer picture of the influence Russian literature has had on contemporary Irish poets.