Russia and the Classics Poetry's Foreign Muse

This study, the first in a new series, addresses the reception of classical antiquity in Russia as reflected in the writings of several significant twentieth-century poets: Innokentii Annenskii, Viacheslav Ivanov, Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelshtam and Joseph Brodsky. This is viewed in the broader context of the Russian relationship with Greco-Roman heritage as a gateway to European culture, and the book thus offers a concise chronology of Russian poetry's self-construction as a legitimate European heir to the legacy of Greece and Rome. The development of classical reception is traced from Antiokh Kantemir and Mikhailo Lomonosov to Alexander Pushkin and found formative for the themes chosen and explored by the poets of the twentieth century. Two major themes explored in most of the poetic texts are Russian mythological tragedy and the reception of Ovid's poetry of exile. This study looks at the texts of these Russian poets from the perspective of classical reception by combining both theoretical and historical approaches with the traditional study of allusions and influences in the poetic texts.

Zara Martirisova Torlone is Assistant Professor of Classics, Miami University of Ohio.