'"Golden-Mouthed Anna of All The Russias": Canon, Canonisation, and Cult'

Harrington, Alex

Abstract

This chapter argues that Akhmatova's pre-eminent status in the contemporary canon rests not only on poetic talent but on extra-literary factors and processes which have elevated her to a form of secular sainthood. It explores the role played by biographies, critical studies, museums, and iconography in organising and generating her 'meaning' as cultural icon, and discusses the auto-canonization and self-mythologization strategies she employed to cultivate the paradoxical image of herself as victimized martyr and triumphant survivor. Akhmatova has become a compelling role model and icon for the post-Soviet intelligentsia, having successfully inscribed herself into a hitherto almost exclusively male tradition of Russian poet as heroic fighter against tyranny through a form of passive resistance which her gender made available to her. The chapter culminates in readings of two poetic works which have a particular canon-making thrust, 'Nas chetvero' and Poema bez geroia, and proposes a way of accounting for the canonical status of Akhmatova's major cycle Rekviem through its mnemonic qualities.

Citation

Harrington, A. (2017). '"Golden-Mouthed Anna of All The Russias": Canon, Canonisation, and Cult'. In K. Hodgson, A. Smith, & J. Shelton (Eds.), Twentieth-century Russian poetry : reinventing the canon (63-93). Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0076.03

• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2017
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Apr 20, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 30, 2017
• Pages: 63-93
• Book Title: Twentieth-century Russian poetry : reinventing the canon.
• ISBN: 9781783740888
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0076.03
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1642929
• Contract Date: Jul 17, 2015