In the Grip of Strange Thoughts: Russian Poetry in a New Era FROM THE PUBLISHER
Though the traditions of Russian poetry go back just two centuries, they are legendary in world literature. One of the Russian poet's most powerful roles since Pushkin's time has been as an artful truth-teller against tyrants. Nadezhda Mandelstam, courageous wife of poet Osip Mandelstam, wrote during the 1970's that "People can be killed for poetry here, because they are still capable of living by it". Her husband met his death in 1940 in a Siberian transit camp.
The year 1990 saw not only a political revolution, but a cultural earthquake of unprecedented impact. Beginning in 1986, tremors shook and finally collapsed the confining roofs of direction and repression. In the Grip of Strange Thoughts: Russian Poetry in a New Era takes full measure of these changes. From over 200 contemporary poets, editor J. Kates has selected 32 voices, of all living generations and representing a phenomenal range of styles and perspectives, from the classicism of St. Petersburg's Alexander Kushner to Dmitry Prigov's witty postmodern anti-poems.
We have enlisted many of today's best translators, who have delivered both accurate and poetic versions which will be suitable for Slavic studies and welcomed by lovers of Russian literature. All poems appear bilingually on facing pages, and are supplemented with notes, photos and biographical statements. In the Grip of Strange Thoughts conveys a sense of the profound freedom, the energy and diversity of a unique moment in Russian culture.
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