New Perspectives on Canonized Poets: Boris Pasternak

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

In contemporary times, anyone seeking to delve into the works of canonical poets is confronted with a series of “existential” questions: What significance lies in the study of poetic classics? How can one navigate previous approaches to poetry, such as formalist, philological, and cultural-historical analyses, with both care and critique? Faced with this vast legacy, how do we find our own voices to say something new and more relevant to our contemporary concerns?

Boris Pasternak serves an exemplary case for thinking about those questions. The poet’s long creative trajectory, his ventures in various genres, and his constant revision of his poetry and poetics all make the poet’s literary legacy particularly rich and complex. Critics and scholars have contributed numerous seminal insights to Pasternak studies, including the principle of metonymy (R. Jakobson), the reconciliation of word and object (Y. Tynianov), the longing towards the spirit of music (B. Gasparov), and the stylistic shift from early “obscurity” to later “simplicity.”

This panel aims to revisit Pasternak’s literary legacy. By critically reassessing and advancing commonly held perspectives on Pasternak, we seek to explore new angles through which to examine this canonized poet. Through this effort, we hope to emphasize that the potential for poetic liberation can be revealed only through continual liberated readings.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 20th Century

Chair

• Clare Cavanagh, Northwestern U

Papers

• Pasternak’s Work with Images: The Fate of the Last Russian Tsar - Elena Glazov-Corrigan, Emory U

• How Artists Shall Treat Birds: B. Pasternak’s Scenes of Creating - Yazhe Yang, Princeton U

• 'Когда он — Фауст, когда — фантаст': Boris Pasternak’s Translation of Faust - Veronika Andrianova Schmitt, Northwestern U

• 'I Reject Mayakovsky': Late Pasternak and the Historical Avant-Garde - Veniamin Vadimovich Gushchin, Columbia U

Discussant

• Catherine Ann Ciepiela, Amherst College