The Last Creative Act. The Mandelstam Case

Books in the ‘Rereading the Classics’ series give a modern analysis of the works that form part of school literature curricula. This is the first attempt to provide a detailed insight into the spiritual, moral and religious aspects of the art of 19th and 20th century Russian writers. The series is offered as the basis of modern knowledge about Russian literature, which is necessary for high school students to pass school-leaving examinations and to gain admission to any institution of higher learning. The title of this book goes back to the well-known formula of O. Mandelstam who often said that an artiste’s death is not accidental, that it is not only the last act of the artiste's life, but also his ‘last creative act’, and more than that – it is as it were ‘the source of this creativity, its teleological reason.’ This formula may seem to be just a beautiful metaphor but when applied to the poet himself it acquires an almost literal meaning. Analyzing Mandelstam’s work of the last period, the author proceeds from the premise that the poet not only predicted the tragic end of his life path in his later poems but he also predetermined it. The book focuses on considering the artiste's relationship with the totalitarian regime, unknown to the previous historical epochs.
For teachers of schools and gymnasiums, high school students, applicants, philologists as well as all literature lovers.