Contributors in Slavic literature, Russian literature, and comparative philology offer an intellectual framework for understanding the contributions of Russian poet Olga Sedakova to Russian culture and world culture. The book offers new translations of her work, close readings of texts, essays on the development of her thought, and discussion of her approach to cultural issues in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Some specific subjects are childhood in her poetry, the Orthodox Christian impulse in her work, and mystical aspects of her lyric poetry. Annotation ©2019 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Olga Sedakova stands out among contemporary Russian poets for the integrity, erudition, intellectual force, and moral courage of her writing. After years of flourishing quietly in the late Soviet underground, she has increasingly brought her considered voice into public debates to speak out for freedom of belief and for those who have been treated unjustly. This volume, the first collection of scholarly essays to treat her work in English, assesses her contributions as a poet and as a thinker, presenting far-reaching accounts of broad themes and patterns of thought across her writings as well as close readings of individual texts.
Essayists from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, and the United States show how Sedakova has contributed to ongoing aesthetic and cultural debates. Like Sedakova's own work, the volume affirms the capacity of words to convey meaning and to change our understanding of life itself. The volume also includes dozens of elegant new translations of Sedakova's poems.
The first book in English on the achievements of a leading poet and public intellectual in today's Russia. Fourteen essays by international scholars assess Olga Sedakova's contributions to ongoing aesthetic and cultural debates.
