Subject
BRODSKY-VN COMPARISON (fwd)
Date
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From: ALICE L BIRNEY <BIRNEY@MAIL.LOC.GOV>
The Sept. 1, 1996, New York Times Book Review includes a
review by John Bayley of a posthumous book by Joseph Brodsky, the
Russian-American poet. Here is a relevant passage:
"Both Conrad and Nabokov learned to write their own
unmistakable English prose; but this was because they were able
to say what they wanted to say through this new but to them
already familiar medium. Nabokov has no more absolute AUTHORITY
as a Russian novelist than as an American one. The two modes of
language and discourse blended, became virtually one. But as a
poet, Brodsky has total authority only in his own language."
Alice Birney
BIRNEY@MAIL.LOC.GOV
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
The Sept. 1, 1996, New York Times Book Review includes a
review by John Bayley of a posthumous book by Joseph Brodsky, the
Russian-American poet. Here is a relevant passage:
"Both Conrad and Nabokov learned to write their own
unmistakable English prose; but this was because they were able
to say what they wanted to say through this new but to them
already familiar medium. Nabokov has no more absolute AUTHORITY
as a Russian novelist than as an American one. The two modes of
language and discourse blended, became virtually one. But as a
poet, Brodsky has total authority only in his own language."
Alice Birney
BIRNEY@MAIL.LOC.GOV
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress