Balina, Faculty Advisor, Marina

Wansley, Joshua

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Illinois Wesleyan UniversityDigital Commons @ IWUJohn Wesley Powell Student ResearchConference 1999, 10th Annual JWP ConferenceApr 17th, 2:30 PM - 4:00 PMThe Poet as Prophet: Public and Private Self in thePoetry of Vladimir MayakovskyJoshua WansleyIllinois Wesleyan UniversityMarina Balina, Faculty AdvisorIllinois Wesleyan UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprcThis Event is brought to you for free and open access by The Ames Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Center for Curricular and FacultyDevelopment, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Commons @ IWU bythe faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu.©Copyright is owned by the author of this document.Joshua Wansley and Marina Balina, Faculty Advisor, "The Poet as Prophet: Public and Private Self in the Poetry ofVladimir Mayakovsky" (April 17, 1999). John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference. Paper 2.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprc/1999/oralpres4/2THE JOHN WESLEY POWELL STUDENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE e APRIL 1999 Oral Presentation 4.3 Joshua Wansley and Marina Balina* Russian Literature, Illinois Wesleyan University THE POET AS A PROPHET: PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SELF IN THE POETRY OF VLADIMIR MA YAKOVSKY It was Stalin who first authoritatively declared that "Mayakovsky was and remains the greatest poet of our times." But even before Stalin canonized the name "Mayakovsky" in the history of the Russian revolution, his presence was ubiquitous. And there is an aspect of the great poet that survives his passing; the name is more a legend than it was ever a man. But uncertainty arises in the realization of this status. And complications compound in an environment of oppression. What is the legend of Mayakovsky? What command do the name and the works evoke to receive the blessings of Stalin? What tragedy impelled the legend, in a glaring detail strategically omitted by some, to eventually take his own life? In this essay, I will explore the tumultuous and enigmatic relationship of a poet and his time; the former characterized by exceptional talent and passion, the latter, oppressive to the creative facility. In a irony worth recognition, Mayakovsky was, in his own words, a "worker-poet", and offered his work to the service of the regime that, in the esteem of some, was a subsisting factor to his suicide. It is evident that while the "public self' was openly content with the Soviet regime, there was a much more complex "internal self' that was discontent with the former, thus impelling the poet to take his life. What can be said of this division given the autobiographical leaning of much of Mayakovsky's poetry? Moreover, what is the disposition of the "internal self'? Of the "public self'? Was Mayakovsky driven to compliance out of weakness? Or was it out of the strength of his conviction that he supported the Revolution? This research project endeavors to analyze the poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky through the prism of his life as a public and a private person and establish the lost connection within the creative persona under the suppression of a totalitarian regime. 

The Poet as Prophet: Public and Private Self in the Poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky

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The Poet as Prophet: Public and Private Self in the Poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky

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