Abstract
This paper presents my completed research on Mikhail Zenkevich (1886-1973), a Russian poet, translator, critic, and the longest surviving member of the Acmeist circle, a twentieth-century modernist literary movement. My book, Mikhail Zenkevich: A Literary Biography, the first book-length study, is forthcoming in Academic Studies Press. Based on extensive research and a large volume of archival documents, recently acquired in the U.S., Russian, Belgian, German, and Ukrainian archives, this book establishes a new approach to the study of this important but lesser-known poet. The book contains a description and analysis of Zenkevich’s oeuvre, presented in chronological order, a literary-critical overview of his major work (poems, prose, translations, and critical writings) and of the events of his life positioned against the historical and socio-political background. The study comes complete with selections from Zenkevich’s correspondence with his relatives and contemporaries – literati, cultural activists, and prominent figures, among them Valery Briusov, Gorge Fedotov, Vasilii Gippius, Nikolai Punin, Ada Onoshkovich-Iatsyna, and others, as well as his other documents also published for the first time. His editorial work is discussed, which accounts for several books, including translations by Anna Akhmatova and the first posthumous collection of poems by Vladimir Narbut. As a result, a new appreciation of Zenkevich as poet and cultural activist will emerge. In his many creative occupations Zenkevich was an outstanding Acmeist poet, an innovator, and, as will become apparent, one of the important figures of the Russian Silver Age and of twentieth-century Russian literature.
Presenters
Svetlana V. CheloukhinaAssociate Professor, Undergraduate Coordinator, European Languages and Literatures, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Acmeism, Avant-Garde, Silver Age, Mikhail Zenkevich, Literary Biography, Archival Research
