Dispute about a poem On the Independence of Ukraine by Joseph Brodsky. Part 1
Piotr Fast
University of Silesia in KatowiceAbstract
The article presents several critical and journalistic statements devoted to Joseph Brodsky’s poem On the Independence of Ukraine, written several months after the country gained statehood and political independence from Russia. Some of their authors (e.g. Oksana Zabuzhko) accuse the poet of a chauvinist and imperial approach to Ukrainian sovereignty, and treat it as part of the cultural world of Russia. Friends and admirers of Brodsky’s work (e.g. Adam Zagajewski, Aleksander Fiut) react to this text differently. They seek justification for the poet’s attitude, although they often express surprise and lack of understanding of why he wrote a poem with such an expression. They have also appeared works which, using an objectified conceptual apparatus (e.g. Yevgeny Breydo), try to defend the poet against the accusations made by critics.
The article is the first part of the study dealing with this issue; the second will be devoted to searching for the intellectual and psychological premises that led to its creation.
Keywords:
Joseph Brodsky, poem On the Independence of Ukraine, critical opinions, imperial approach, colonial way of thinkingReferences
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University of Silesia in Katowice
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