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The Most Dangerous Art

Poetry, Politics, and Autobiography after the Russian Revolution

Donald Loewen

At a time in Russia's history when poets could be (and sometimes were) killed for a poem, the autobiographies of three prominent poets, Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Boris Pasternak, became a courageous defense of poetry. The Most Dangerous Art shows how these autobiographies trace an emotional trajectory that corresponds to the intensity of the social and state pressures that threatened Russian poets from the early 1920s to the late 1950s. During a period when literature became intensely political, and creative freedom became intensely risky, these autobiographies proclaim poetry's immortality and defend the poet's right to individual creativity against an increasingly threatening Soviet literary hierarchy. Donald Loewen provides detailed close readings of these biographies and juxtaposes these readings with historical context. The Most Dangerous Art is an illuminating contribution to the study of Russian literature. The volume is of special interest to researchers of 20th century Russian literature and autobiography.
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Lexington Books
Pages: 238 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¾
978-0-7391-2083-5 • Hardback • December 2007 • $128.00 • (£98.00)
978-0-7391-2084-2 • Paperback • June 2010 • $57.99 • (£45.00)
978-0-7391-5790-9 • eBook • December 2007 • $55.00 • (£42.00)
Subjects: Literary Criticism / Russian & Former Soviet Union, History / Europe / Russia & the Former Soviet Union
Donald Loewen is associate professor of Russian at Binghamton University (SUNY).

Chapter 1 Endangered Genre, Endangered Artist
Chapter 2 Early Warning Signs
Chapter 3 The Search for Safe Passage
Chapter 4 Fighting for Breath
Chapter 5 The Poet's Birthright
Chapter 6 A Survivor's Story
The Most Dangerous Art provides a subtle and far-reaching analysis of how poetic culture engaged with political reality in the Soviet era. By focusing on the autobiographical prose of Pasternak, Mandelstam, and Tsvetaeva and by showing how the 'orientation toward authenticity' (Lydia Ginzburg) in such writing places these works and their authors at the center of a force field involving the individual, the state, and the larger human community, Donald Loewen shows once again why 'the Poet' has been such an indispensable figure, indeed perhaps the indispensable figure, in the history of Russian self-consciousness. A beautifully written and powerfully argued study...
— David M. Bethea


Recommended.....
— ., May 2008


The greatest strength of the book is its unearthing and tracking of key literary debates between these writers and their opponents within the establishment, citing reviews and articles from newspapers and journals of the time.....
— Belinda Cooke


The Most Dangerous Art is passionately argued and very smoothly written.....
—


Loewen's approach in The Most Dangerous Art provides a synthesis of the familiar and the original: each chapter opens with a summary of earlier scholarship on the increasingly difficult situation for writers during the Soviet Union's first forty years, the proceeds to often passionate but informed analyses of the autobiographical works in question.... The Most Dangerous Art is well organized, meticulously researched and lucidly argued.... The volume makes a substantive contribution to thefield and will be of particular use to emerging scholars, since it presents both the context and the impact, especialy for the poets' lives, in a single volume...
— Natasha Kolchevska, University of New Mexico


The Most Dangerous Art

Poetry, Politics, and Autobiography after the Russian Revolution

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • At a time in Russia's history when poets could be (and sometimes were) killed for a poem, the autobiographies of three prominent poets, Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Boris Pasternak, became a courageous defense of poetry. The Most Dangerous Art shows how these autobiographies trace an emotional trajectory that corresponds to the intensity of the social and state pressures that threatened Russian poets from the early 1920s to the late 1950s. During a period when literature became intensely political, and creative freedom became intensely risky, these autobiographies proclaim poetry's immortality and defend the poet's right to individual creativity against an increasingly threatening Soviet literary hierarchy. Donald Loewen provides detailed close readings of these biographies and juxtaposes these readings with historical context. The Most Dangerous Art is an illuminating contribution to the study of Russian literature. The volume is of special interest to researchers of 20th century Russian literature and autobiography.
Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 238 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¾
    978-0-7391-2083-5 • Hardback • December 2007 • $128.00 • (£98.00)
    978-0-7391-2084-2 • Paperback • June 2010 • $57.99 • (£45.00)
    978-0-7391-5790-9 • eBook • December 2007 • $55.00 • (£42.00)
    Subjects: Literary Criticism / Russian & Former Soviet Union, History / Europe / Russia & the Former Soviet Union
Author
Author
  • Donald Loewen is associate professor of Russian at Binghamton University (SUNY).
Table of Contents
Table of Contents

  • Chapter 1 Endangered Genre, Endangered Artist
    Chapter 2 Early Warning Signs
    Chapter 3 The Search for Safe Passage
    Chapter 4 Fighting for Breath
    Chapter 5 The Poet's Birthright
    Chapter 6 A Survivor's Story
Reviews
Reviews
  • The Most Dangerous Art provides a subtle and far-reaching analysis of how poetic culture engaged with political reality in the Soviet era. By focusing on the autobiographical prose of Pasternak, Mandelstam, and Tsvetaeva and by showing how the 'orientation toward authenticity' (Lydia Ginzburg) in such writing places these works and their authors at the center of a force field involving the individual, the state, and the larger human community, Donald Loewen shows once again why 'the Poet' has been such an indispensable figure, indeed perhaps the indispensable figure, in the history of Russian self-consciousness. A beautifully written and powerfully argued study...
    — David M. Bethea


    Recommended.....
    — ., May 2008


    The greatest strength of the book is its unearthing and tracking of key literary debates between these writers and their opponents within the establishment, citing reviews and articles from newspapers and journals of the time.....
    — Belinda Cooke


    The Most Dangerous Art is passionately argued and very smoothly written.....
    —


    Loewen's approach in The Most Dangerous Art provides a synthesis of the familiar and the original: each chapter opens with a summary of earlier scholarship on the increasingly difficult situation for writers during the Soviet Union's first forty years, the proceeds to often passionate but informed analyses of the autobiographical works in question.... The Most Dangerous Art is well organized, meticulously researched and lucidly argued.... The volume makes a substantive contribution to thefield and will be of particular use to emerging scholars, since it presents both the context and the impact, especialy for the poets' lives, in a single volume...
    — Natasha Kolchevska, University of New Mexico


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