The poetry of this poet is the hallmark of a complex and controversial era, and his work is a manifesto against everything unjust and inert. But does the concept of the monument to Joseph Brodsky in Moscow fully correspond to the image of the poet that has developed in the ideas of his admirers?
Becoming
Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky was born in 1940 in Leningrad in the family of a photographer, and later a newspaper photographer. His mother was an accountant. So this family can be attributed to the creative only half.
When the siege of Leningrad began, little Joseph and his mother went to evacuate to the city of Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast, where he remained until the end of World War II.
After returning to Leningrad, he went to school, but studied there for only seven years. Not even completing an eight-year education, Joseph joined the milling assistant. The teenager made this decision on his own, realizing how hard it was for his family.
Brodsky wrote his first poems at the age of 16-17, but he began to seriously study poetry from the age of 18. The formation of his poetic style was influenced by the works of Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Pasternak. The first performance of Joseph took place in 1960 in Leningrad at the "tournament of poets." The poem he read then caused a real scandal.
Exiled poet
In 1963, I.A. Brodsky was publicly accused of parasitism and betrayal of the motherland. Pasquille published one of the central and respected newspapers, “Evening Leningrad, ” so the stigma was firmly entrenched in him, and the information caused a great resonance in society. The publishing house began to receive many letters from indignant citizens, in which there was a demand to take action against the poet. He was soon arrested. The persecution, public humiliation, false accusations and arrest led to the logical result: I. Brodsky had a heart attack.
Later, he was faced with a choice - emigration or a mental hospital. Joseph Brodsky left the Soviet Union and became a US citizen.
"… a poet who will glorify his homeland"
The life of Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky in exile was successful. He taught at universities, conducted research in the field of language, and was awarded the Nobel Prize. In America, he led an active creative life, was engaged in translations, wrote critical articles. And his poetry was of constant interest to a foreign reader.
Recognition at home came to Brodsky after perestroika. But the poet never found the strength to return. His health was severely undermined, including the death of his parents, whom the Soviet government did not allow him to see in the 1980s.
Joseph Aleksandrovich Brodsky died in 1996, leaving a great poetic heritage.
The poet is a "mathematician" or the poet is a "science fiction"?
The work of I.A. Brodsky can be compared with a mathematical problem that he solved all his life. It has “given” - everything that is happening around it, there is also “unknown” - the eternal laws of life, which he tried to comprehend. Also, the poet researcher tried to understand the deep essence of human nature. Brodsky's poems are philosophical reflections on the environment and the creation of his imaginary worlds.
Features of poetic vocabulary
To create these worlds, Brodsky selects the vocabulary of the one that most expresses the essence, without disdaining obscene, vernacular and rude expressions. Often his works are written in a complex, scientific manner. Thoughts are expressed in them using scientific terms and rational formulas, so his poetry is often characterized as mathematical.
The poet rejected the classical canons, deliberately violating the rhythmic foundation and melody of the verse. He sacrificed musicality for the sake of objectivity and the greatest vitality. Brodsky intentionally refused to use the lyrical hero in favor of an epic, often devoid of any manifestation of feelings. This was necessary for the master for the most objective reflection of the picture of life that the traveler sees, moving from one point of the world to another. The position of the author in the works of Joseph Brodsky is absent. Each reader makes his own attitude to what is happening, experiencing only his inherent feelings.
Intonation poetry of Joseph Brodsky is very rich. The author uses moralizing sayings in the form of aphorisms, inferences, paradoxes, ironic utterances.
Brodsky Monument in Moscow
The monument to the poet was erected on Novinsky Boulevard in the square near the American embassy in 2011. Two categories of Russians gathered at the opening ceremony: today's reader and contemporaries of the poet who knew him personally.
Brodsky's monument in Moscow is made of bronze according to the design of George Frangulyan and Sergey Skuratov. He represents two groups of faceless planar figures, the central of which is the poet himself. All of them are mounted on a granite pedestal.
Work on the Brodsky monument in Moscow lasted seven years. At first it was planned that it will be installed in St. Petersburg, but since the work was not completed, the chief architect of Moscow decided to install the monument in the capital.
For admirers of Joseph Brodsky's poetry, the address of the monument in Moscow is Novinsky Boulevard, 22.
