Today, with the semi-prohibitions of his lifetime behind us, the rush of posthumous praise having subsided, and the period of cultural canonization of Vladimir Vysotsky as a national bard and a just as universally beloved actor having arrived, the uniqueness of his phenomenon has become evident. Even decades later, it defies being "appropriated" or turned into a "solidly cast monument," continuing instead to exist apart, to follow "its own track"—"without a safety net," "despite the ropes, cables, and wires," beyond the line of the "red flags." Paradoxically, this detachment, this separateness, this irreducibility to common formulas and well-trodden paths (which is what makes the author truly alive) is combined with his extraordinary receptivity to other creative voices, to the figurative structure of high poetry and the prosaisms of everyday speech, and with an openness to all kinds of styles and genres, themes and moods, poetic meters and lyrical personas. An acute—nerve-ending—sense of life and poetic truth, an absolute pitch that rejects any false intonation, an incredible variety of roles not just played on stage or in film but lived through in songs and poems—all this polyphony of meanings and images is contained within the pages of this book.
This edition presents an extensive collection of poetic works created by Vladimir Vysotsky from the late 1950s to 1980, as well as selected prose by the poet.
Author: Vladimir Vysotsky
Pages: 960 (offset). Hardcover
Dimensions: 220x145x45 mm
Series: Russian Literature. Big Books
