Information about the author:
Veronika B. Zuseva-Özkan, DSc in Philology, Leading Research Fellow, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9537-108X
E-mail:
Abstract:
The article examines the reflection of Heinrich Heine’s poetry and persona in the work of the contemporary Russian poet Timur Kibirov who was greatly influenced by Heine though not through original texts but through numerous translations into Russian (so called “Russian Heine”). This influence is acknowledged by Kibirov in his poem in prose Dead Crones and demonstrated in this article on several levels: the level of direct references to Heine; the level of individual quotes and allusions; the level of fundamental principles of poetics and worldview. The creative reception of Heine by Kibirov is highly unusual and goes far beyond the traditional attitude toward the German poet: Heine is commonly perceived as a rebel, a sufferer and the last Romantic poet whose writings highlight ironic dissonances, while in Kibirov’s creations he appears as a harmonic personality, and his poetry — as a kind of vaccine against decadent worldview and “Romanticism”.