Arkadii Dragomoshchenko
Encyclopedia
Arkadii Dragomoshchenko (1946 - ) is a Russia
n poet
, writer, translator, and lecturer. He is considered the foremost representative of language poetry in contemporary Russian literature.
, John Ashbery
, Robert Creeley
, Charles Olson
, Michael Palmer
, Eliot Weinberger
, Barrett Watten
and others in Russian, and served as co-editor for The Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry in Russian Translation, as well as for The Anthology of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry.
Dragomoshchenko has lectured in the Department of Philosophy at the St Petersburg State University, and has provided seminars as a Visiting Professor at various institutes in the United States and Canada, including the University of California, San Diego
, New York University
, and the University at Buffalo. At present he teaches in the Smolny College
of Liberal Arts and Science, an affiliate of Bard College
.
According to Marjorie Perloff
, "for Dragomoshchenko, language is not the always already used and appropriated, the pre-formed and pre-fixed that American poets feel they must wrestle with. On the contrary, Dragomoshchenko insists that "language cannot be appropriated because it is perpetually incomplete" (...) and, in an aphorism reminiscent of Rimbaud's "Je est un autre," "poetry is always somewhere else." "
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, writer, translator, and lecturer. He is considered the foremost representative of language poetry in contemporary Russian literature.
Biography
Arkadii Trofimovich Dragomoshchenko was born on February 3, 1946 in Potsdam, Germany. Since 1969 Dragomoshchenko has lived in St. Petersburg. He received the Andrey Bely Independent Literary prize in 1978, the Electronic Text Award ("for poetry from Phosphor"), PostModernCulture (PMC) in 1993, and "The Franc-tireur Silver Bullet," International Literary Prize in 2009. His writings have been translated and published in anthologies and journals in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, Brazil and the United States. He has translated the work of Lyn HejinianLyn Hejinian
Lyn Hejinian is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is well known for her landmark work My Life , as well as her book of essays, The Language of Inquiry .-Life:Hejinian was born in the San...
, John Ashbery
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
, Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...
, Charles Olson
Charles Olson
Charles Olson , was a second generation American modernist poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance...
, Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer is an American poet and translator. He attended Harvard University where he earned a BA in French and a MA in Comparative Literature. He has worked extensively with Contemporary dance for over thirty years and has collaborated with many composers and visual artists...
, Eliot Weinberger
Eliot Weinberger
Eliot Weinberger is a contemporary American writer, essayist, editor, and translator. His work regularly appears in translation and has been published in some thirty languages...
, Barrett Watten
Barrett Watten
Barrett Watten is an American poet, editor, and educator often associated with the Language poets.Since 1994, Watten has taught modernism and cultural studies at Wayne State University in Detroit...
and others in Russian, and served as co-editor for The Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry in Russian Translation, as well as for The Anthology of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry.
Dragomoshchenko has lectured in the Department of Philosophy at the St Petersburg State University, and has provided seminars as a Visiting Professor at various institutes in the United States and Canada, including the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and the University at Buffalo. At present he teaches in the Smolny College
Smolny College
Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is a liberal arts college located in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is the product of a collaboration between Bard College and Saint Petersburg State University. It has the distinction of being the first liberal arts college in Russia.Smolny opened in...
of Liberal Arts and Science, an affiliate of Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
.
Literary style
Dragomoshchenko fuses elements of poetry, essay, philosophy, journalism and fictional prose, and "explores the way our perceived and conceptual worlds are constructed through language. Self-consciousness, mannerism and a degree of abstraction are inevitable hazards in this territory, they are also concomitants of an individual voice obstinately pursuing its own themes. The fundamental characteristics of his work remain constant and may be summarized in the title of his first American translations — Description."According to Marjorie Perloff
Marjorie Perloff
Marjorie Perloff is an Austrian-born U.S. poetry critic.Perloff was born Gabriele Mintz into a secularized Jewish family in Vienna. Faced with Nazi terror, her family emigrated in 1938 when she was six-and-a-half, going first to Zürich and then to the United States, settling in Riverdale, New York...
, "for Dragomoshchenko, language is not the always already used and appropriated, the pre-formed and pre-fixed that American poets feel they must wrestle with. On the contrary, Dragomoshchenko insists that "language cannot be appropriated because it is perpetually incomplete" (...) and, in an aphorism reminiscent of Rimbaud's "Je est un autre," "poetry is always somewhere else." "
Books translated in English
- Description. A book of poetry, translated by Lyn HejinianLyn HejinianLyn Hejinian is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is well known for her landmark work My Life , as well as her book of essays, The Language of Inquiry .-Life:Hejinian was born in the San...
. LA: Sun & Moon Press, 1990. - Xenia. A book of poetry, translated by Lyn Hejinian. LA: Sun & Moon Press, 1994.
- Chinese Sun. A novel, translated by Evgeny Pavlov. Eastern European Poets Series No. 9. New York, NY: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2005.
- Dust. Collected prose, translated by Thomas Epstein, Evgeny Pavlov, and Shushan Avagyan. Urbana-Champaign, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 2009.
Books in Russian
- Nebo Sootvetstvii. [Sky of Correspondence] A book of poetry, Sovetskii Pisatel’ Press, Leningrad, 1990.
- Xenia. A book of poetry, Borei & Mitin Journal Press, St Peterburg, 1994.
- Phosphor. A book of prose, Severo-Zapad Press, St Petersburg, 1994.
- Pod Podozreniem. [Under Suspicion] A book of poetry, Borey-Art Press, St Petersburg, 1994.
- Kitajskoe Solnce. [Chinese Sun] A novel, Borey-Art Press & Mitin Journal, St Petersburg, 1997.
- Opisanie. [Selected] A book of poetry, Gumanitarnaia Akademia Press, St Petersburg, 2000.
- Na Beregakh Iskliuchennoj Reki. [On the Banks of an Excluded River] A book of poetry, OGI Press, Moscow, 2006.
- Bezrazlichia. [Indifferences] Collected prose, Borey-Art Press, St Petersburg, 2007.
- Shoaling Things. (co-authored by Jan LauwereynsJan LauwereynsJan Lauwereyns , full name Johan Marc José Lauwereyns, is a poet, essayist, and scientist. As a cognitive neuroscientist, he specializes in the voluntary control of attention and decision making. He has published articles in journals such as Nature, Neuron, and Trends in Cognitive Sciences, and the...
, with a drawing by Anne-Mie Van KerckhovenAnne-Mie van KerckhovenAnne-Mie van Kerckhoven is a Belgian artist whose work involves painting, drawing, computer art and video art.-Biography:Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven was born in Antwerpen and lives in Antwerpen and Berlin....
) Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2011. - Tavtologia. [Tautology] Collected poetry, Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie Press, Moscow,2011.
Awards
- Andrei Bely Independent Literary Prize, Leningrad, 1978.
- Electronic Text Award ("for poetry from Phosphor"), PostModernCulture (PMC), 1993.
- The Franc-tireur Silver Bullet, International Literary Prize (US), 2009.
External links
- Dalkey Archive Press http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/book/?GCOI=15647100245340
- Ugly Duckling Press http://www.uglyducklingpresse.org/catalog/browse/item/?pubID=55
- From Phosphor, Postmodern Culture http://pmc.iath.virginia.edu/text-only/issue.193/dragomos.193
- Pavlov, E. “What We Talk about When We Talk about Poetry: a Recent View from St. Petersburg.” Postmodern Culture, v9no1, September, 1998. Electronic version http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/text-only/issue.998/9.1pavlov.txt