An edition of Lyric poetry and modern politics (2009)

Lyric poetry and modern politics

Russia, Poland, and the West

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Last edited by MARC Bot
May 23, 2026 | History
An edition of Lyric poetry and modern politics (2009)

Lyric poetry and modern politics

Russia, Poland, and the West

Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics explores the intersection of poetry, national life, and national identity in Poland and Russia from 1917 to the present. As a corrective to recent trends in criticism, acclaimed translator and critic Clare Cavanagh demonstrates how the practice of the personal lyric in totalitarian states such as Russia and Poland did not represent an escapist tendency; rather it reverberated as a bold political statement and at times a dangerous act. Cavanagh also provides a comparative study of modern poetry from the perspective of the eastern and western sides of the iron curtain. Among the poets discussed are Blok, Mayakovsky, Akhmatova, Yeats, Whitman, Frost, Szymborska, Zagajewski, and Miłosz; close readings of individual poems are included, some translated for the first time. Cavanagh examines these poets and their work as a challenge to Western postmodernist theories, thus offering new perspectives on twentieth-century lyric poetry.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
332

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Previews available in: English

Book Details


Table of Contents

Introduction: acknowledged legislation
Courting disaster: Blok and yeats
Whitman, Mayakovsky, and the body politic
The death of the book a la russe: the Acmeists under Stalin
Akhmatova and the forms of responsibility: the Poem without a Hero
Avant-guarde again, or the posthumous Polish adventures of Vladimir Mayakovsky
Bringing up the rear: the histories of Wislawa Szymborska
Counterrevolution in poetic language: Poland's Generation of '68
The unacknowledged legislator's dream: Czeslaw Milosz and Anglo-American poetry
Afterword: martyrs, survivors, and success stories, or the postcommunist prophet.

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-315) and index.

Published in
New Haven, [Conn.]

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
809.1/04
Library of Congress
PN1356 .C35 2009, PN1356.C38 2010, PN1356 .C38 2009

The Physical Object

Pagination
xi, 332 p. ;
Number of pages
332

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL24407793M
ISBN 13
9780300152968
LCCN
2009023902
OCLC/WorldCat
294887573

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL15440123W

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