From Christmas [Rozhdestvo] to Ariel’s Message [Soobshchenie Arielya]

Abstract

The article discusses the poetic evolution of the contemporary author Polina Barskova. Nuzhdina follows the logic of Barskova’s poetic experimentation: from her early works written in the 1990s–2000s and inspired by the then-fashionable postmodernist intertextuality to the present-day verse marked by Barskova’s engagement with other, non-poetic new genres. Particularly important are her historical essays, such as The Seventh Alkali [Sedmaya shchyoloch], a book concerned with the distinguishing features of the poetry written in the besieged Leningrad in the 1940s, or her article in the collection of fiction and literary criticism entitled After the Siege [Blokadnye posle], which she also prepared for publication. The matter of genre becomes prominent in Nuzhdina’s analysis: the scholar argues that, following her beginnings in the tradition of intertextuality, typical of the period, Barskova, as early as in the 2010s, went on to master a specific genre of a ‘poetic archive,’ evidenced both in her poetry and historical research. Her poetic texts and essays share a number of characteristics: a diversity of ‘disguises’ and voices, a focus on documentary accuracy, and an ‘uninterrupted alternation’ of narrative and lyrical scenes.