Anna Akhmatova, Cosmopolitanism, and World Literature

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter outlines Akhmatova's place in world literature and illustrates how Akhmatova sought to position herself in international literary space through her practice of intertextuality. It accounts for the prominence ofRequiemin Anglophone anthologies of world literature by exploring the roles played by translatability, intertextuality, trauma, politics, and life‐writing in its circulation and reception. It suggests that the predominant focus onRequiemrisks generating a reductive view of Akhmatova's significance, obscuring other important works. Finally, it considers Akhmatova in relation to Casanova's characterization of the “world republic of letters” and the concept of cosmopolitanism, arguing that international literary space provided Akhmatova with an imagined community that allowed her to transcend Soviet reality and survive psychologically. It concludes that Akhmatova's cosmopolitan outlook – her sense of belonging to, and orientation toward, world literature – has facilitated the travel of both her work and biography across national boundaries.