Prigov's Texts of our Life

[S. Lloyd]

        ESSAYS IN POETICS
        NEW TITLE

        DMITRY PRIGOV

        TEXTS OF OUR LIFE

        Dmitry Prigov is a major figure on the contemporary Russian poetic
scene.  He has written a staggering number of poetry books (so far he has
produced more than 150 such 'books', or about 21,000 poems), among them
about 86 Alphabets (Azbuka) and dozens of essays.  At the same time he has
developed graphic art, sculpture, and multi-media installations.  Prigov's
name has become synonymous with Russian postmodernism.  In 1993 Prigov
shared with Kibirov a Pushkin prize established by the Friedrich von
Schiller Foundation.
        The first selection of his poetic works, Tears of the Heraldic Soul,
appeared in 1990, and his second book of poetry, Fifty Drops of Blood, was
published in 1993.  Apart from these two collections, the 1990s have seen
the publication of Prigov's poems in many leading Russian periodicals.  His
poetry and prose have been translated into many European languages.
        Texts of our Life is Prigov's first bilingual collection.  Prigov's
poems are indeed "the texts of our life", "a discourse with the dominant
political content and an attempt to deconstruct it".  Common, trivial and
vulgar, they both pander to and parody socialist realist aesthetics, using
its sources, its stereotypes and ideological fetishism.  Some of his poems
have a political nature by virtue of their craft, others convey different
aspects of Russian life not necessarily in their context, but in their
'politext'.
        Prigov cultivates a deliberately primitive poetics:  tautological
rhymes, repetitive rhythm, the same syntactic constructions, lack of
punctuation, absence of tropes, etc.  These features would be weaknesses in
any other poet, but Prigov has turned them into his essential strength.
With such a simplification of poetic language the composition of the poem
takes a leading role.  In many ways he challenges the conventional view of
poetry.
        The poems in this collection reflect key aspects of Prigov's
writings.


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        ORDER  FORM

Please send me . . . . . . copies of Prigov's Bilingual Selected Poems,
Texts of Our Life, Edited & Introduced by Valentina Polukhina (ISBN 0
9509080 4 5), pp. 99. @  #7.00., (including postage and packing).

I enclose a cheque for # . . . . . . , payable to Essays in Poetics

Mrs. Shirley Stubbs
Essays in Poetics
Department of Russian
Keele University, Newcastle, Staffs.ST5 5BG
England