‘Golden-mouthed Anna of all The Russias’ : canon, canonisation, and cult.

摘要

This chapter argues that Akhmatova's pre-eminent status in the contemporary canon rests not only on poetic talent but on extra-literary factors and processes which have elevated her to a form of secular sainthood. It explores the role played by biographies, critical studies, museums, and iconography in organising and generating her 'meaning' as cultural icon, and discusses the auto-canonization and self-mythologization strategies she employed to cultivate the paradoxical image of herself as victimized martyr and triumphant survivor. Akhmatova has become a compelling role model and icon for the post-Soviet intelligentsia, having successfully inscribed herself into a hitherto almost exclusively male tradition of Russian poet as heroic fighter against tyranny through a form of passive resistance which her gender made available to her. The chapter culminates in readings of two poetic works which have a particular canon-making thrust, 'Nas chetvero' and Poema bez geroia, and proposes a way of accounting for the canonical status of Akhmatova's major cycle Rekviem through its mnemonic qualities.