Authors

Discussion

In a 2004 conversation with Valentina Polukhina, Lev Loseff joked, “”’Brodsky studies,’ something which you and I initiated some twenty years ago, is now galloping along at an industrial pace.” Polukhina and Loseff played many roles in Joseph Brodsky’s life as close friends, literary critics, biographers and compilers. After the poet’s death, they became the primary guardians of his legacy. One joint project is extremely noteworthy: Polukhina compiled with Loseff the biographical timeline for Loseff’s 2006 Russian biography of the poet in the Lives of Remarkable People series, and in so doing, added much new detail to the events of the poet’s life. Even while working on their separate projects, they were often in close contact as shown in their correspondence, some of which has recently become available in the Loseff archive at Columbia. In my presentation I will trace their collaborations in Brodsky’s life and work. playmates. By studying their published writings on Brodsky and archival holdings of these two scholars’ letters I hope to formulate the common principles that they developed as to what was appropriate and what they withheld in crafting the poet’s image both during his lifetime and after his death but also where their approaches diverged, especially regarding translations.