Since 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russian poetry has exuded a powerful awareness of freedom, both aesthetic and political. No longer confined to the cultural underground, poets reacted with immediacy to events in the world. In The Freest Speech in Russia, Stephanie Sandler offers the first English-language study of contemporary Russian poetry, showing how these poems both express and exemplify freedom.
This period was a time of great poetic flourishing for Russian poets, whether they remained in Russia or lived elsewhere. Sandler examines the work of dozens of poets鈥攊ncluding Gennady Aygi, Joseph Brodsky, Grigory Dashevsky, Arkady Dragomoshchenko, Mikhail Eremin, Elena Fanailova, Anna Glazova, Elizaveta Mnatsakanova, Olga Sedakova, Elena Shvarts, and Maria Stepanova鈥攁nalyzing their engagement with politics, performance, music, photography, and religious thought, and with poetic forms small and large. Each chapter investigates one of these topics, with extensive quotation from the poetry, including translations of all texts into English.
In an afterword, Sandler considers poets鈥� responses to Russia鈥檚 war on Ukraine and the clampdown on free expression. Many have left Russia, but their work persists, and they remain vocal opponents of domestic political oppression and international violence.
Stephanie Sandler is the Ernest E. Monrad Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. She is the author of Commemorating Pushkin: Russia’s Myth of a National Poet and a coauthor of A History of Russian Literature.
"Sandler offers subtle, highly perceptive and original analyses of works by poets who, while perhaps little-known outside the Russosphere, are key figures in contemporary versification. . . . In this fiercely erudite and wide-ranging study – the finest of its kind on the subject matter – she has demonstrated conclusively a flourishing of poetry, against considerable odds, over the past three decades in Russia."鈥擝ryan Karetnyk, Times Literary Supplement
“An anti-official Russian poetry is now flourishing as a powerful force for aesthetic invention, political resistance, and cultural freedom. The Freest Speech in Russia introduces a vast constellation of searing and appealing poets. Stephanie Sandler is an informative guide to a new Russian poetry that, at its most rhetorical and piercingly ironic, averts the dogmas of lyric containment.”—Charles Bernstein, author of The Kinds of Poetry I Want: Essays & Comedies
“With remarkable thoughtfulness and sensitivity, Sandler portrays poets from several generations who have revolutionized Russian verse. Her sophisticated analysis of the new poetic language and the novel subjectivities it engenders reveals their profound historical significance: they are wellsprings of vitality in an atmosphere of political asphyxiation. Sandler is certain that the impact of new poetics will endure beyond Russia's current condition (and its state borders) and resonate well into the future, and I fully agree with her.”—Mark Lipovetsky, Columbia University
“This book is a unique and brilliant study by one of the best scholars of Russian poetry. The interpretations are subtle, deeply thoughtful, and highly original. An extremely significant scholarly contribution.”—Susanne Fusso, Wesleyan University
“With this book, Stephanie Sandler once again demonstrates her ability to move the field forward with deep erudition and grace. The scholarship is, frankly, stunning. There are no comparable works, and Sandler’s analyses and translations are compelling and sophisticated.”—Sarah Pratt, University of Southern California
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