MARINA BASMANOVA IN THE POETRY OF J. BRODSKY – A MUSE FROM THE KIERKEGAARD’S SKIES Cover Image

МАРИНА БАСМАНОВА В ЛИРИКАТА НА ЙОСИФ БРОДСКИ – МУЗА ОТ НЕБЕСАТА НА КИРКЕГОР
MARINA BASMANOVA IN THE POETRY OF J. BRODSKY – A MUSE FROM THE KIERKEGAARD’S SKIES

Author(s): Boyko Lambovski
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Russian Literature
Published by: ЮГОЗАПАДЕН УНИВЕРСИТЕТ »НЕОФИТ РИЛСКИ«
Keywords: Joseph Brodsky; Marina Basmanova; Kierkegaard; poetry; muse; Nobel price

Summary/Abstract: This article turns our attention to the lyrics of J. Brodsky, dedicated to M.B. – the mysterious muse of the poet from his very early age in Leningrad (St. Petersburg nowadays). Marina Basmanova – who was a real person and a beloved girl of Brodsky, became a true muse in his poetry, hidden behind the initials M.B. (or without them), which completed the mythological need of every prominent classic poet (Dante, Petrarch) to have a muse and a great but heartbreaking love in his life of an artist. Basmanova played this role successfully and was indeed the fatal muse of the Nobel price owner. However, the article attempts to show that even in the beginning of his life in literature, Brodsky had the foresight of his future importance and glory and instinctively put himself in a mythological paradigm including the great duo – the poet and his muse, and the great sufferance turned into great inspiration and creativity. Thus, he became real evidence of the famous example of S. Kierkegaard describing the poet as an unhappy person, whose suffering sounds like music to us. The article emphasizes that J. Brodsky did not simply imitate the classic poet-muse dynamic, but as a matter of fact, he did belong to it by means of instinctive mythologizing his own destiny. He did not reject the glorification or the downplaying of his love since he knew that greatness and weakness made one and the same plot. Both the role of the muse of the poet and of the heartbroken genius were completed.

  • Issue Year: 17/2019
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 133-136
  • Page Count: 4
  • Language: Bulgarian