Andrew Kahn - Mandelstam’s Love Lyric: Sex and Devotion

Date and Time

October 16, 2018
04:30PM - 04:30PM EDT

Location

CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Room S354

CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Room S354

After some prefatory remarks about Mandelstam’s love lyric, the paper will concentrate on two poems: “Mistress of guilty glances” (“Masteritsa vinovatykh vzorov”, 1934) and “I pray, Dame France, for mercy and compassion,” (“Ia moliu, kak zhalosti i milosti,” 1937). Discussion will address a permanent tension in Mandelstam’s poetry from the Acmeist period (1910) until Voronezh (1934-37) between sexual love, complicated by ambivalence about bodily desire, and ideals of devotion including Charity.  This tension shapes the representational and rhetorical strategies used in establishing the relationship between speaker and beloved. Mandelstam was always capable of a fair degree of poetic difficulty and these poems present some enigmas of interpretation. Whether and how they are specifically Mandelstamian is worth considering. A secondary aim, therefore, will be to make some general comments about the critical methods that help to open up his late poetry.

Andrew Kahn, Professor of Russian Literature and Fellow of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University

See also:
Share on:
Save: Add to calendar

Accessibility

Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Slavic Department at 617-495-4065 or slavic@fas.harvard.edu in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance, if possible. Please note that the university will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.