The Apophatic Theology and the Sacred in the Poetry of Dmitrij Prigov

Abstract

The article considers the poetic production of Dmitrij Prigov, one of the most prominent representatives of Moscow Conceptualism, and focuses on the references that can be found in Prigov’s works to the apophatic or negative theology of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, one of the early Eastern Church Fathers. Through several examples, taken from cycles of poems from the 1970s and 1990s, the article investigates Prigov’s poetry through the lens of apophaticism and explores formal experimentations as well as stylistic strategies related to apophatic rhetoric. Theological, philosophical and sacral models are detached from their original context and used by the artist in a very unconventional way. Moreover, in the apophatic tradition Prigov discovers ideas that are fully applicable to his own understanding of poetry. The essay also discusses the relationship between art and religion in Prigov’s view and his idea of the sacred in art.