Why couldn’t these ghosts make themselves useful for once?
Bernardine Evaristo, Soul Tourists
The pivotal role of Alexander Pushkin in the Soviet state-sponsored literary project cannot be overstated: He served as the “model poet” not only for Russia but also for all other Soviet republics that were supposed to develop “their own Pushkin,” as Maxim Gorky suggested in his speech at the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934.[1] Pushkin’s role as the nation’s primary poet had been firmly established since the Pushkin Jubilee in 1880. In the imperial literary discourse, the religious ideal of the “poet-prophet” was largely modeled on him. In the Soviet remodeling of Pushkin, this image merged with the Socialist Realist ideal of the writer as an “engineer of the human soul.”[2] Pushkin served not only as a national poet but also as a cultural, i.e., secular saint.[3] Consequently, Soviet Pushkin studies allowed little room for thought that seemed sacrilegious or iconoclastic. Thus, despite the significant socio-cultural changes following the collapse of the Soviet Union, contemporary Pushkin research continues to grapple with persistent lacunae in the history of his reception. „Fanny Helena Wehner: ALEXANDER PUSHKIN, AFROPEAN POET“ weiterlesen