Description
Book SynopsisBoris Slutsky (1919-1986) is a major original figure of Russian poetry of the second half of the twentieth century whose oeuvre has remained unexplored and unstudied. The first scholarly study of the poet, Marat Grinberg’s book substantially fills this critical lacuna in the current comprehension of Russian and Soviet literatures.
Grinberg argues that Slutsky’s body of work amounts to a Holy Writ of his times, daringly fusing biblical prooftexts and stylistics with the language of late Russian Modernism and Soviet newspeak.
Trade Review“Boris Slutsky, according to this brilliant book, accomplished the seemingly impossible: a poet of Soviet times, he reforged the totality of Russian literary culture, from Church Slavonic to Pushkin to Khlebnikov and beyond, within the crucible of Jewish self-understanding. Marat Grinberg, author of this impressive study, has also accomplished the seemingly impossible. He demonstrates how this supremely Russian poet can and must be read in his totality: “from right to left,” from beginning to end, and from his desk drawer to Red Square.” -- David G. Roskies, Sol and Evelyn Henkind Professor of Yiddish Literature, Jewish Theological Seminary. Director, Center for Yiddish Studies, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
“In this erudite and insightful book, Marat Grinberg rescues a great poet from a numbing set of mid-century clichés. No longer a “war poet,” or “Soviet diarist,” or sometime Jew, Boris Slutsky emerges as he was in fact—a sometimes playful, sometimes anguished heir to Russian modernism, who read Jewish catastrophe through Jewish texts.” -- Alice Nakhimovsky, Colgate University
“Grinberg’s illuminating study will be of use to students and scholars interested in modern poetry, comparative literature, Jewish and Russian twentieth-century literature, and the representation of historical memory. It is an important book that sheds new light on the history of Soviet literature and brings to the fore Slutsky’s powerful responses to the manifestations of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and to the collapsing Soviet monumental style and ideology in the postwar period." -- Alexandra Smith, Reader in Russian Studies, University of Edinburgh * The Russian Review *
"...original, wide-ranging and often provocative… this first monograph-length study of Slutskii in English enables a deeper appreciation of his remarkable talent." -- Barry Scherr * The Slavic Review *
“From Grinberg… we get an entirely different Slutsky, a kind of Soviet Rashi, who created a “Judaic” interpretation of Soviet life. This alone makes Slutsky one of the most interesting and enigmatic literary figures in the history of the 20th century." -- Mikhail Krutikov, University of Michigan * The Forward *
“Grinberg has written a perceptive work that serves as an original and provocative contribution useful to those interested in studying Slutsky’s work, either in Russian-Jewish literature or Jewish studies more generally, and to those looking to deepen their understanding of the complex processes at work in Russian poetic history in the mid-twentieth century by learning about one of its more important figures.” -- Slavic and East European Journal
“Grinberg has written a perceptive work that serves as an original and provocative contribution useful to those interested in studying Slutsky’s work, either in Russian-Jewish literature or Jewish studies more generally, and to those looking to deepen their understanding of the complex processes at work in Russian poetic history in the mid-twentieth century by learning about one of its more important figures." -- Rebecca Pyatkevich, Lewis & Clark College
“Marat Grinberg states that his new reading of Slutsky collapses a number of central Russian and Soviet literary paradigms. It also challenges the interpretative stereotype of Slutsky as a quintessentially Soviet poet…this well-researched and well-argued book is a significant contribution to the field of Russian Jewish literature and the broader field of Jewish studies." -- Henrietta Mondry (University of Canterbury), H-Judaic
Marat Grinberg's extensive and detailed study of Slutsky's work supports the view of the poet as a central figure in the Russian poetry of the last century, who inherited the techniques of the avant-garde Futurists and Constructivists, and had a formative influence on younger poets. . . . Grinberg leaves his readers in no doubt that Slutsky is a figure of major significance, a poet whose work deserves close attention. . . . If there has been a risk of viewing Slutsky through the simplistic model of the Soviet loyalist who fell into disillusion, Grinberg's work has succeeded in opening up new perspectives on the poet's work. -- Katharine Hodgson * Journal of Modern Jewish Studies (2013) *
Table of ContentsPreface: Not Quite Platonov: toward a History of Misinterpreting the Poet. Poet-Interpreter/Translator-Scribe. Part One: Historiography. 1. The Ur-Suite of 1940/41: ‘Poems about Jews and Tatars”. 2. The Poet-Historian: Transplantation Added. 3. A Blessed Curse: The Midrash of 1947-53. 4. Looking at the Burned Planet: the Post-Holocaust Verse. 5. The Resurrected Remnant: of Horses and Metapoetics. Part Two: Polemics. 6. Writing the Jew: the Poetics of the Father. 7. On Account of the Elegy: within Cemetery Walls. 8. Conversing about God: the Judaic Poetics. Part Three: Intertexts. 9. Among the Objectivists: Charles Reaznikoff. 10. Blindness and no Insight: David Samoilov. 11. Leader of leaders and mentor of mentors”: Il’ia Sel’vinskii. 12. “Weighty proofs of the unprovable”: Ian Satunovskii. 13. The Final Myth: Pushkin. Conclusion: The Reader in Perpetuity.
