Presentations by Streams

The panel will discuss the legacy of the Nobel Prize winning poet Joseph Brodsky (1940-96) and the emergence of Brodsky studies. In 2024, a volume entitled JOSEPH BRODSKY AND MODERN RUSSIAN CULTURE edited by Joe Andrew, Katharine Hodgson, Robert Reid and Alexandra Smith will be published by Brill. This volume will contain a range of articles focused on Brodsky's writing and his legacy as well as on the role played by Valentina Polukhina in the creation of what we now call Brodsky Studies. Polukhina's impact on Brodsky scholarship will be assessed in two contributions to this panel, which are based on the chapters of the forthcoming volume. The third paper will focus on Brodsky's work and question the dominant interpretation of Brodsky as an a-political poet.