Under the Sign of Contradiction

The book revisits the final decade in the life of Osip Mandelstam (18911938), a central poet of Russian Modernism. Premised on the belief that no life can be understood without insight into its contradictions, the book attends to the two contentious cruxes of Mandelstam's life and art: his testifying against his closest friends to the secret police and his composition, in exile, of an ode in praise of Stalin. Offering a close reading of the protocols of Mandelstam's interrogations, a critical reflection on the nature of the «Ode» and an unflinching yet humane interpretation of the connecting events, the book pursues the dramatic arc of Mandelstam's imaginative involvement with the politics of the Soviet state, revealing the perennial aspects of his case in dialogue with poets and critics in the English language, from Andrew Marvell to William Empson. In doing so, the book contemplates Mandelstam a poet of «longing for world culture» as a phenomenon of Western literature at large.

Autorentext

Anna Razumnaya is a literary historian, textual scholar and journalist. She earned her doctorate at the Editorial Institute of Boston University. Her critical essays, translations and other writings have appeared in literary journals Essays in Criticism, Literary Imagination, Berlin.BEREGA, Pusteblume and elsewhere. She lives in Boston with her family.

Klappentext

The book revisits the final decade in the life of Osip Mandelstam (1891 1938), a central poet of Russian Modernism. Premised on the belief that no life can be understood without insight into its contradictions, the book attends to the two contentious cruxes of Mandelstam s life and art: his testifying against his closest friends to the secret police and his composition, in exile, of an ode in praise of Stalin. Offering a close reading of the protocols of Mandelstam s interrogations, a critical reflection on the nature of the «Ode» and an unflinching yet humane interpretation of the connecting events, the book pursues the dramatic arc of Mandelstam s imaginative involvement with the politics of the Soviet state, revealing the perennial aspects of his case in dialogue with poets and critics in the English language, from Andrew Marvell to William Empson. In doing so, the book contemplates Mandelstam a poet of «longing for world culture» as a phenomenon of Western literature at large.

Inhalt
CONTENTS: «The Stalin Epigram» and the Liberty of Protest A Moulten Falcon: Poetry as Consolation and Dialectic «Be Simple Answer'd, for We Know the Truth»: Of Protocol and Interrogations Double Bind, 1934 Under the Stars: Poetry as Courage and Resistance In the Cross-Vault: The Stalin «Ode» as Metaphysical Poetry Quarrels on the Witness Stand, or Posthumous Mandelstam Criticism and the Fate of Poets.