Venice in Poems by Joseph Brodsky: Poetic Canon and Key Motifs

Student: Chernenko Philipp

Supervisor: Oleg Lekmanov

Educational Programme: Comparative Studies: Russian Literature in Cross-cultural Perspective (Master)

Final Grade: 9

Year of Graduation: 2016

This dissertation gives an analysis of poems by Joseph Brodsky about Venice. Brodsky’s nine Venetian poems are discussed in the work, their key motifs analyzed and intertextual relations with Russian Venetian text of XIX-XX centuries displayed. Key motifs of Brodsky poetry, such as the motif of nostalgia, solitude, emptiness, water and tear are found in his Venetian poems. On the other hand, the work provides a brief review of poems included in the Russian canon of Venetian text. Connections between Brodsky’s and his predecessors' works are illustrated. The author shows that Brodsky is both a part of this tradition and the one who transforms it. This work defines a role which Brodsky’s poems play in the history of Venetian text. Key words: Brodsky, Venice, venetian text, canon, poetry.

Full text (added May 30, 2016)

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