M. Gasparov’s internal review of D. Maksimov’s publication of V. Bryusov’s selected articles and reviews

Abstract

The article reproduces, and comments on, a hitherto unknown internal review penned by M. Gasparov in response to D. Maksimov’s second volume of V. Bryusov’s collected works that was ready for publication in 1987. The reviewer not only critiques certain aspects of the book’s structure and contents but suggests a serious conceptual revision of the entire collection. The fact that the manuscript contains D. Maksimov’s marginalia, turns the document into a form of a dialogue between the two scholars. Presented in the article is effectively an abridged version of Gasparov’s and Maksimov’s scholarly ‘correspondence.’ The main bone of contention was that Maksimov strove to demonstrate Bryusov’s development, i. e., the evolution of his creative thought. By contrast, Gasparov wished to emphasize the fact that Bryusov functioned in two equally important capacities: as a poet and creator as well as a theoretician of versification. Gasparov, therefore, insisted that the poet’s legacy should be represented in connection with his theoretical experimentations with form. Maksimov rejected Gasparov’s suggestions detailed in the review, which nonetheless remains of interest for the study of the two approaches to textual criticism.