Andrei M. Ranchin, DSc in Philology, Leading Researcher, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovsky Avenue, 51/21, 117418, Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0414-5106
The article examines the interpretation of exile in the lyrics of Joseph Brodsky during the emigrant period. Using the example of the line “[I] gobbled down the bread of exile, not leaving a crumb” from the poem “I, Instead of a Wild Beast, Entered the Cage…” it is shown that its superficial meaning of ‘tasted in full [bitterness of exile]’ conflicts with the deep semantics, meaning the acceptance of emigration, exile as a gift of freedom. This line is a hidden polemical attack against the metaphor of the bitter bread of exile from Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” translated by M.L. Lozinsky and at the same time a dispute with the statement “Your road is dark, wanderer, / Someone else’s bread smells like wormwood” from Anna Akhmatova’s poem “I am not with those who abandoned the native land…”, which contains an allusion to Dante’s metaphor. It is proved that Brodsky, in his poems from the foreign period, consciously abandoned the romantic interpretation of his departure as a sad event and rejected the expected nostalgic motives characteristic of Russian emigrant poetry.
J. Brodsky; motive of exile; metaphor; allusion; Dante; A. Akhmatova; dispute with the romantic tradition.
26.02.2024
28.03.2024
Ranchin, A.M. “About One Line and the Interpretation of Exile in the Poetry of Joseph Brodskyˮ. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 4(66), 2024, pp. 157–171. (In Russ.)
1. Aver’yanova-Mnikh, L. “Dantovskaya kontseptsiya mira v Poehme bez geroya Anny Akhmatovoi” [“Dante’s Concept of the World in Anna Akhmatova’s Poem without a Hero”]. Tret’i Akhmatovskie chteniya. Materialy oblastnoi nauchnoi konferentsii 12–14 maya 1993 goda [Third Akhmatova Readings. Proceedings of the Regional Scientific Conference on May 12–14, 1993], Odessa, 1993, pp. 58–59. (In Russ.)
2. Akhapkin, D.N. “Perechityvaya Dekabr’ vo Florentsii” [“Rereading December in Florence”]. Zvezda, no. 5, 2020, pp. 135–156. (In Russ.)
3. Akhapkin, D.N. Iosif Brodskii i Anna Akhmatova. V glukhonemoi vselennoi [Joseph Brodsky and Anna Akhmatova. In a Deaf and Dumb Universe]. Moscow, AST
Publ., 2021, 288 p. (In Russ.)
4. Akhmatova, A. Stikhotvoreniya i poehmy [Verses and Poems], preface by A.A. Surkov, ed. V.M. Zhirmunskii. Leningrad, Sovetskii pisatel’ Publ., 1976, 559 p. (In Russ.)
5. Brodskii, I. Bol’shaya kniga interv’yu [Big Book of Interviews], ed. V. Polukhina. Moscow, Zakharov Publ., 2000, 703 p. (In Russ.)
6.
7. Volkov, S. Dialogi s Iosifom Brodskim [Dialogues with Joseph Brodsky], preface by Ya. A. Gordin. Moscow, Nezavisimaya gazeta Publ., 1998, 328 p. (In Russ.)
8. Dante Alig’eri. Bozhestvennaya komediya [The Divine Comedy], transl. by M. Lozinskii, ed. I.N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1967, 628 p. (In Russ.)
9. Kikhnei, L.G. “Dantovskii kod v poehzii Anny Akhmatovoi” [“Dante’s Сode in the Poetry of Anna Akhmatova”]. Anna Akhmatova. Ehpokha, sud’ba, tvorchestvo. Krymskii Akhmatovskii nauchnyi sbornik [Anna Akhmatova. Era, Fate, Creativity. Crimean Akhmatova Scientific Сollection], issue 8. Simferopol’, Krymskii arkhiv Publ., 2010, pp. 114–127. (In Russ.)
10. Koroleva, N.V. “‘Mogla li Biche slovno Dant tvorit’…’ Problema zhenskogo obraza v tvorchestve Akhmatovoi” [“‘Could Biche, like Dante, create…’ The problem of the female image in Akhmatova’s work”]. Tainy remesla. Akhmatovskie chteniya [Secrets of the Craft. Akhmatova readings], issue 2. Moscow, Nasledie Publ., 1992, pp. 93–112. (In Russ.)
11. Lozinskii, M.L. “Primechaniya. Rai” [“Notes. Paradise”]. Dante Alig’eri. Bozhestvennaya komediya [The Divine Comedy], transl. by M. Lozinskii, ed.
I.N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1967, pp. 587–618. (In Russ.)
12. Meilakh, M., Toporov, V. “Akhmatova i Dante” [“Akhmatova and Dante”]. International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics, vol. XV, 1972, pp. 29–75. (In Russ.)
13. Mnich, L. “Anna Akhmatova i Dante. Zamechaniya k interpretatsii Poehmy bez geroya” [“Anna Akhmatova and Dante. Notes on the Interpretation of Poem without a Hero”]. Neophilologica Podlachiensia Podlachian Studies of Modern Philology, no. 8–9, 2013, pp. 69–78. (In Russ.)
14. Morev, G. Poeht i tsar’. Iz istorii russkoi kul’turnoi mifologii (Mandel’shtam, Pasternak, Brodskii) [Poet and Tsar. From the History of Russian Cultural
Mythology (Mandelshtam, Pasternak, Brodsky)]. Moscow, Novoe izdatel’stvo Publ., 2020, 129 p. (In Russ.)
15. Petrushanskaya, E. “‘Slovo iz zvuka i slovo iz dukha’. Priblizhenie k muzykal’nomu slovaryu Iosifa Brodskogo” [“‘A Word from Sound and a Word from Spirit’. Approaching the Musical Dictionary of Joseph Brodsky”]. Zvezda, no. 1, 1997, pp. 217–229. (In Russ.)
16. Ranchin, A. Na piru Mnemoziny. Interteksty Iosifa Brodskogo [At the Feast of Mnemosyne. Intertexts of Joseph Brodsky]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2001, 464 p. (In Russ.)
17. Ranchin, A.M. “Samoprezentatsiya liricheskogo ‘ya’ v poehzii Iosifa Brodskogo” [“Self-presentation of the Lyrical ‘I’ in the Poetry of Joseph Brodsky”]. I.A. Brodskii. Pro et contra. Antologiya [I.A. Brodsky. Pro et contra. Anthology], eds. O.A. Bogdanova and A.G. Stepanov. St Petersburg, RKhGA Publ., 2023, vol. 2, pp. 73–85. (In Russ.)
18. Slovar’ russkogo yazyka [Dictionary of the Russian Language]: in 4 vols, ed. A.P. Evgenieva, 3 rd ed., stereotype. Moscow, Russkii yazyk Publ., 1985–1988. (In Russ.)
19. Sluzhevskaya, I. Kitezhanka. Poehziya Akhmatovoi: tridtsatye gody [Kitezhanka. Akhmatova’s Poetry. The Thirties]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2008, 134 p. (In Russ.)
20. Tolkovyi slovar’ russkogo yazyka [Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language], ed. D.N. Ushakov. Moscow, OGIZ Publ., 1935–1940, vols. 1–4. (In Russ.)
21. Toporov, V. “K otzvukam zapadnoevropeiskoi poehzii u Akhmatovoi (I. Dante)” [“To the Echoes of Western European Poetry in Akhmatova (I. Dante)”]. Slavic Poetics. Esseys in Honor of Kiril Taranovsky. The Hague, Paris, Mouton, 1973, pp. 467–475. (In Russ.)
22. Fateeva, N.A. Kontrapunkt intertekstual’nosti, ili Intertekst v mire tekstov [Counterpoint of Intertextuality, or Intertext in the World of Texts]. Moscow, Agar Publ., 2000, 270 p. (In Russ.)
23. Khlodovskii, R.I. “Anna Akhmatova i Dante” [“Anna Akhmatova and Dante”]. Tainy remesla. Akhmatovskie chteniya [Secrets of the craft. Akhmatova Readings], issue 2. Moscow, Nasledie Publ., 1992, pp. 75–92. (In Russ.)
24. Bethea, D.M. Joseph Brodsky and the Creation of Exile. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994, XVII, 317 p. (In English)
25. Ishov, Z. “Joseph Brodsky’s ‘December in Florence’. Re-interpretation Exile with the Shadow of Dante”. Australian Slavonic and East European Studies Journal, vol. 31, no. 1–2, 2017, pp. 129–172. (In English)
26. Polukhina V. “‘I, Instead of a Wild Beast, Entered the Cage’. Ya vkhodil vmesto dikogo zveria v kletku”. Joseph Brodsky. The Art of a Poem, eds. L. Loseff and V. Polukhina. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, London, N.Y., Macmillan Press Ltd., 1999, p. 68–91. (In English)