Selected Essays

A poet, critic and theoretician during the Silver Age of Russian poetry, at the turn of the 20th century, Viacheslav Ivanov was dubbed
Viacheslav the Magnificent
by his contemporaries for his erudition, sumptuous and elusive poetry and brilliant essays. He provided Russian Symbolism with theoretical underpinnings based on classical and biblical mythology, the aesthetics of music, philosophy ranging from Plato and Kant to Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, and a profound knowledge of classical and modern European poetry. In choosing material for this volume of essays, Robert Bird and Michael Wachtel have covered a broad range of Ivanov’s interests: the aesthetics of Symbolism, theatre, culturalogical concerns and such influential figures of the period as Nietzsche, Solovyov, Tolstoy and Scriabin. Also included are extensive notes on the essays in which classical, biblical and poetic citations and allusions are identified, the aesthetic and theoretical contexts are clarified and certain translation problems are briefly discussed.