Presentations by Streams

In early years of the twentieth century, poets writing in Russian had a choice of poetic groups and movements to associate themselves with, if they so wished. The personnel, artistic agenda, and legacy of some of these groups, and those that emerged later, have been the object of study for literary historians seeking to define and map poetic networks, while poets themselves have announced their affinities in their own work, dedicating poems to figures in their own circle, and so asserting their connections to particular tendencies or traditions. The three papers in this panel explore different kinds of affiliation. Short-lived associations in a particular place and time can leave a lasting trace in the public imagination, without necessarily being firmly founded in a shared artistic credo or style. Other affiliations may be more indicative of a common creative vision among contemporaries which can endure over decades after the group has ceased to exist, but may be expressed in poems dedicated to fellow-poets long after their death which explore the survivor’s relationship with an often forgotten or marginalised tradition. The sense of connection can extend beyond time and space, as poets living in diaspora create communities which transcend the boundaries of space and time to find their place in a tradition that they themselves define.