Последовательное развенчание, воспроизводящее миф: О (не)литературной стратегии Александра Альтшулера

Lecture by Dmitrii Bresler.

Download PDF

Последовательное развенчание, воспроизводящее миф: О (не)литературной стратегии Александра Альтшулера by Dmitrii Bresler (the lecture will be given in Russian)

The poet Alexander Altshuler (1938–2014) is recognized by many as a participant in the artistic and literary underground community of the 1960s. He had close connections with the poets of Malaya Sadovaya, particularly with V.  rl, and was acquainted with the artist E. Mikhnov-Voitenko.
His legendary friendship with the poets L. Aronzon and R. Purishinskaya is a notable aspect of the unofficial cultural scene of Leningrad. However, Altshuler’s contributions extend beyond mere imitation and apprenticeship. Working for numerous years in Leningrad and later, after repatriation, in Jerusalem, he developed an original creative method that demands attention and comprehension. Altshuler never viewed poetry as a profession and didn't seek an audience; rather, writing served as a medium for every movement and action, a way of living and experiencing life. He jotted down lines and phrases on scraps, on carbon paper, collecting them later into complete texts. However, he did not exhibit a graphomaniac tendency of “not a day without a line.” Instead, daily writing allowed Altshuler to balance the intensity of poetic expression in favor of conveying meaning. His focus was on overcoming the formal and even grammatical limitations of poetry. His texts inherently carry a parable-like and philosophical nature. Altshuler's strategic arrangement of the free flow of text, utilizing natural caesuras and folds instead of enjambments and rhymes, brings to mind Giorgio Agamben's reflections. Agamben compared the formal boundaries of a poem to the katechon of the Apostle Paul — that which holds back and must eventually be removed. Dmitrii Bresler's presentation will delve into the writing strategy of Alexander Altshuler within the context of the literary process of the late Soviet era.

Dmitrii Bresler is a specialist in the Soviet literary underground of the 1920s-1980s and a former Senior Lecturer at the Department of Philology at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg. He has authored several publications on modernist literature of the early Soviet era, the history of reception, and the pragmatics of literary discourse.