Vyacheslav Ivanov's Заветы defines the
terms of the polemic. Kuzmin's essay offers a platform for the future Acmeists.
Gumilev and Gorodecky offer "Oedipal" manifestoes. Mandelstam tries to map out
the poetic philosophy of the young generation as well as point to the
difference between the new and the old.
2.
A quick read of the entire
Камень (1913), compared
to Камень (1916).
NB:
Preferably, you should use the Literaturnye pamiatniki edition of Kamen’.
It contains a wealth of material, including the poetry, early prose,
and great annotations. A copy is on reserve in the department.
Question:
How do the beginning, the middle, and the end of the collection define the cycle, or a book of
poems, specifically the first two collections
Камень.
Focus on the following poems:
Звук осторожный и глухой
Дано мне тело--что мне делать с ним
Silentium
Раковина
Казино
Поедем в Царское село!
Лютеранин
Айя София
Notre Dame
Петербургские строфы
Я не увижу знаменитой "Федры"
3. Essays:
"Франсуа Вийон,"
"О собеседнике," "Утро акмеизма"
Question:
Mutual illumination of Mandelstam's critical prose and
poetry
a. the implied reader
of Камень and "О
собеседнике";
b. notion of an "event" in "Villon" and "Лютеранин"
or "Казино";
c. Mandelstam's polemics with the Futurists, his "Logos"
("Утро акмеизма") and the character of his poetic practice
in "Петербургские строфы"
4. Scholarship (optional, but necessary in the long run):
*Timenchik, R. "Zametki ob akmeizme" (Russian
Literature 7/8, 1974);
*Ronen, O., "Povtor, podtekst i smysl v poetike Osipa
Mandel'shtama," Slavic Poetics: Essays in Honor of Kiril
Taranovsky, ed. R. Jakobson et al. (The Hague, 1973).
Freidin, G., A Coat of Many Colors (Berkeley, 1987),
Chapters 1 and 2.
*Levin, Yu., D. Segal et al.., "Russkaia semanticheskaia
poetika kak potentsial'naia kul'turnaia paradigma" (Russian
Literature 7/8, 1974);
*Neil Fraistat, The Poem and the Book: Interpreting Collections
of Romantic Poetry (Chapel Hill, 1985). Chapters 1 and 2.
(*) indicates: available on the reserve shelf at the Slavic dept.
library
NOTE:
Much of Mandelstam's poetry is
available on line at: http://ithil.mcst.ru/~igor/mandelshtam.html.
This is an electronic version of Mandel'shtam, O. E., Avtoportret.
Stikhotvoreniia 1908-1937 (M. Tsentr-100, 1996)
There is a lot more by others on the same site: http://ithil.mcst.ru/~igor/
and http://www.litera.ru/stixiya/.
See also Biblioteka Maksima Moshkova:http://www.lib.ru.
