Iosif Brodskij's 'Rimskie elegii': A critical analysis

Iosif Brodskij frequently speaks of poetry as a unique mode of synthetic thinking. This dissertation contributes to a definition of the principles of this cognitive mode through close analysis of Brodskij's Rimskie elegii--a cycle of 12 poems that represent the poet-speaker's experiences during a sojourn in Rome.;Particular attention is devoted to the plurality of perspectives that informs the cycle. Each poem and the cycle as a whole is governed by a mirroring principle that pivots around disengagement from self through the creation of a reflected alter self. This principle is manifested in the architectonics of RE through the pairing of poems equidistant from elegy VI, the cycle's midpoint. The pairing of poems foregrounds the changes that occur in the representation of self and situation over the course of the cycle.;In defining the changes that occur in the image of the speaker in the poetic world I have focused on certain key oppositions, including: embodiment vs. disembodiment and darkness vs. light. Analysis of the paired poems reveals that over the course of the cycle the speaker's bodily image disappears from the poetic world and is replaced by a composite substitute image that includes clothing, shadows and the graphic traces of the speaker's activity in the poetic world (writing).;The mobility of perspective that motivates the changing image of self and situation reveals the poet's ability to confront his existential limitations through self-reflection and at the same time to find continuity or a transcending point of view in poetry--an alternate mode of existence.;Through detailed examination of the tension between the external unity of these 12 poems and the internal dynamics of the cycle, it is demonstrated that the cycle may be read as the record of a particular cognitive event. Through poetic experience the speaker moves towards a moment of illumination or comprehension.;The final chapters of this study view the metamorphosis of self and situation and the multiplication of perspectives in their relation to certain literary traditions including the elegy and the tradition of Rome as symbolic locus.