Eloquent Silence: Akhmatova, Mandel’shtam, Early Cinema, and Modernism

Abstract

Given the conservative nature of the Acmeism movement, which placed emphasis on ‘high’ cultural production, it might be expected that a mechanical medium such as cinema would engender a hostile reaction. Through readings of selected early lyrics it is demonstrated that, despite a measure of suspicion towards cinema as a manifestation of mass culture, both Mandel’shtam and Akhmatova engaged creatively with film from the outset. Readings of later poems which invoke popular mass icon Charlie Chaplin show that ‘low’ and ‘high’ culture are now drawn into much closer proximity. Overall, the lyrics discussed serve to illuminate some of the complexities and tensions inherent to the interaction between modernist literature and the cinema, as well as providing examples of their convergence.

Keywords:

• Acmeism
• Akhmatova
• Mandel’shtam
• cinema
• poetry
• Chaplin

I would like to express my grateful thanks to the anonymous readers for Slavonica for their helpful and incisive comments on this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Harrington

Alexandra Harrington is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Russian, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University. She has published widely on Anna Akhmatova, including the monograph The Poetry of Anna Akhmatova: Living in Different Mirrors (Anthem, 2006) and a biographical essay on the poet in Russia’s People of Empire: Life Stories from Eurasia, 1500 to the present, ed. Norris and Sunderland (Indiana University Press, 2012). She is currently working on a study of the visual characteristics of the poetry of Afanasii Fet.

Correspondence to Alexandra Harrington. School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University, Elvet Riverside, Durham DH1 3JT, UK. E-mail: [email protected]