Joseph Brodsky

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Joseph Brodsky (May 24, 1940 – January 28, 1996), born Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (Russian: Ио́сиф Алекса́ндрович Бро́дский) was a Russian poet and essayist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1987) and was chosen Poet Laureate of the United States (1991-1992). He had an honorary degree of the University of Silesia.

Contents 1 In the Soviet Union 2 In the United States 3 Ideas 4 Quotes 5 Bibliography 6 References 6.1 In Russian 7 Footnotes 8 External links

[edit] In the Soviet Union

Brodsky was born into a Jewish family in Leningrad, the son of a professional photographer in the Soviet Navy. In early childhood he survived the Siege of Leningrad. When he was fifteen, Brodsky left school and tried to enter the School of Submariners (школа подводников) without success. He went on to work as a milling machine operator (фрезеровщик) at a plant. Later, having decided to become a physician, he worked at a morgue at the Kresty prison. He subsequently held a variety of jobs at a hospital, in a ship's boiler room, and on geological expeditions.

At the same time, Brodsky engaged in a program of self-education. He learned English and Polish (mainly to translate poem by Czesław Miłosz, who was Brodsky's favourite poet and a friend), acquired deep interest in classical philosophy, religion, mythology, English and American poetry. Later in life, he admitted that he picked up books from anywhere he could find them, including even garbage dumps.

Brodsky began writing his own poetry and producing literary translations around 1957. His writings were apolitical. The young Brodsky was encouraged and influenced by the poet Anna Akhmatova who called some of his verses "enchanting." He had no degree in the liberal arts.

In 1963, he was arrested and in 1964 charged with parasitism ("тунеядство") by the Soviet authorities. A famous excerpt from the transcript of his trial made by journalist Frida Vigdorova and smuggled to the West:

Judge: And what is your profession, in general?

Brodsky: I am a poet and a literary translator.

Judge: Who recognizes you as a poet? Who enrolled you in the ranks of poets?

Brodsky: No one. Who enrolled me in the ranks of humankind?

Judge: Did you study this?

Brodsky: This?

Judge: How to become a poet. You did not even try to finish high school where they prepare, where they teach?

Brodsky: I didn’t think you could get this from school.

Judge: How then?

Brodsky: I think that it ... comes from God.^[1]

For his "parasitism" Brodsky was sentenced to five years of internal exile with obligatory engagement in physical work and served 18 months in Archangelsk region. The sentence was commuted in 1965 after prominent Soviet and foreign literary figures, such as Evgeny Evtushenko and Jean Paul Sartre, protested.

In 1964, Leonid Brezhnev came to power. As the Khrushchev Thaw period ended, only four of Brodsky's poems were published in the Soviet Union. He refused to publish his writings censored and most of his work has appeared only in the West or in samizdat.

[edit] In the United States

On June 4, 1972 Brodsky was expelled from the USSR. He became a U.S. citizen in 1980. His first teaching position in the United States was at the University of Michigan (U-M). He has been Poet-in-Residence and Visiting Professor at the U-M, Queens College, Smith College, Columbia University, and Cambridge University in England. He was a Five-College Professor of Literature at Mount Holyoke College.

He achieved major successes in his career as an English language poet and essayist. In 1978, Brodsky was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters at Yale University, and on May 23, 1979, he was inducted as a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1981, Brodsky received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's "genius" award.

In 1986, his collection of essays Less Than One won the National Book Critic's Award for Criticism. In 1987, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, being the fifth Russian-born writer to do so. At an interview in Stockholm airport, to a question: "You are an American citizen who is receiving the Prize for Russian-language poetry. Who are you, an American or a Russian?", he responded: "I am Jewish".^[2]

In 1991, Brodsky became Poet Laureate of the United States. His inauguration address was printed in Poetry Review. He married Maria (surname needed) in the same year. They had one daughter.

Brodsky died of a heart attack in his New York City apartment on January 28, 1996 and was buried according to the Catholic rite at Isola di San Michele cemetery in Venice, Italy. This would indicate that he converted to Catholicism at an earlier point (citation needed).

Poets who influenced Brodsky included Osip Mandelstam, W.H. Auden, Robert Frost, Derek Walcott and Stephen Spender.

A close friend to the Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, Brodsky has been remembered and memorialised in the latest collection of poetry entitled The Prodigal (pp. 26-27).

[edit] Ideas

A recurring theme in Brodsky's writing is the relationship between the poet and society. In particular, Brodsky emphasized the power of literature to positively impact its audience and to develop the language and culture in which it is situated. He suggested that the Western literary tradition was in part responsible for the world having overcome the catastrophes of the twentieth century, such as Nazism, Communism and the World Wars. During his term as the Poet Laureate, Brodsky promoted the idea of bringing the Anglo-American poetic heritage to a wider American audience by distributing free poetry anthologies to the public through a government-sponsored program. This proposal was met with limited enthusiasm in Washington.

[edit] Quotes

• Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe — not empirically, alas, but only theoretically--that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens.
• Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul.
• There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

[edit] Bibliography

Poetry (English)

• A Part of Speech (1977)
• To Urania (1984)
• So Forth (1984)
• Collected Poems in English (2000)
• Nativity Poems (2001)

Essays (English)

• Less Than One (1986))
• Watermark (1992)
• On Grief and Reason (1996)

Plays (English)

• Marbles (1986)
• Democracy! (1991)

Interviews (English)

• Joseph Brodsky: Conversations (2003)

[edit] References

[edit] In Russian

• Труды и Дни (Works and Days, 1998) Edited by Pyotr Veil and Lev Losev (Online)
• Строфы века. Антология русской поэзии (Verses of the Century, 1995) Edited by Evgeny Evtushenko

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ The original transcript reads: Судья: А вообще какая ваша специальность? Бродский: Поэт. Поэт-переводчик. Судья: А кто это признал, что вы поэт? Кто причислил вас к поэтам? Бродский: Никто. (Без вызова). А кто причислил меня к роду человеческому? Судья: А вы учились этому? Бродский: Чему? Судья: Чтобы быть поэтом? Не пытались кончить Вуз, где готовят... где учат... Бродский: Я не думал, что это дается образованием. Судья: А чем же? Бродский: Я думаю, это... (растерянно)... от Бога... The translation is taken from Remembering Joseph Brodsky by Cissie Dore Hill at Hoover Institution Archives
2. ^ Works and Days. A Jew or a Hellene? chapter by Simon Markish

[edit] External links

• Literary Encyclopedia
• biographical information about Brodsky
• Short Biography
• (Russian) Some prose and essays by Brodsky
• 21 English poems by Brodsky
• Review of Brodsky 's Törnfallet
• Last published interview
• Joseph Brodsky – Biography at Nobelprize.org
• Photogallery
• (Russian) Comprehensive site on Brodsky
• (Russian) Interview with Yevgeny Rein giving background on Brodsky's life
• Written in Stone - Burial locations of literary figures.