Authors

Eugenia Kelbert Rudan¹;  ¹ Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

Discussion

Was Joseph Brodsky a Russian or an Anglophone poet? What does bilingualism mean in his case, and how does it affect his work? While Brodsky's self-translations have come under much-needed critical attention in recent years, this paper explores the relationship between Brodsky's Russian oeuvre to his body of work written originally in English with a focus on the poet's stylistic choices. Over a series of close readings, it presents a holistic approach to the poet’s bilingualism through the added prism of his career as an original English poet and essayist and his teaching practice as a US academic.