“Песнь есть форма лингвистического неповиновения”

Abstract

«The song is a form of linguistic revolt» : On some cases of substandard vocabulary in Joseph Brodsky’s poetry and prose. Within a more general inquiry into the topic “Brodsky and language”, this article deals with specific contexts of Brodsky’s usage of the substandard variant of the possessive pronoun “ixnij”(their). A brief survey of the historic evolution of the form “ixnij” since the 17th century precedes the analysis and classification of examples drawn from Brodsky’s essays, theatre plays, and poetry, as well as from his translations from Euripides and Kavafis. Used independently or in deliberate proximity with the grammatically correct variant “ix”, this form fulfills multifarious functions : it signals the idiosyncratic speech of certain characters, indicative of their cultural and social level ; distinguishes the voice of the speaker from that of the author, even in presumably lyrical passages ; creates a stylistic contrast ; reinforces the expressionistic and ironic qualities of the text ; introduces familiar and intimate intonation ; suggests a retrospective, nostalgic gaze by alluding to the jargon of Russian intellectuals in the 1960s ; and, ultimately, highlights the linguistic code while deemphasizing the content, underscoring Brodsky’s meta-poetic intentions. Above all, challenging the authoritarian academic grammar, “ixnij” becomes a formula of linguistic revolt. The full range of the word’s meanings reveals the “performative”, postmodernist aspect of Brodsky’s poetics and contributes to our understanding of his linguistic strategies.