Poetics, Politics and Ethics (or Reading Mandelstam as a Commentary of Contemporary Russian Poetry and Russian Rap)

Abstract

This article discusses, from the viewpoint of Mandelstam’s poetics, the political potential of contemporary Russian poetry and Russian rap as a modern form of expression that preserves some of the traditional elements of poetry. Mandelstam’s understanding of poetry serves as the starting point for defining the specific poetic dimension of the political and ethical, and in this context I analyze two different examples of contemporary political poetry (Dmitry Bykov and Elena Fanailova). I conclude that the cases analyzed do not evince true realizations of poetic politics and ethics, but that perhaps some potential for this can be found in forms of contemporary Russian rap music.