Valentina Polukhina

Valentina Polukhina
Website	http://arsint.com/cont/v_p.html

Valentina Polukhina (born 18 June 1936) is a British-Russian scholar, Emeritus Professor at Keele University, and the widow of Daniel Weissbort. She is the recipient of the A.C. Benson Medal.

Biography

Valentina Polukhina was born in Siberia and educated at Kemerovo, Tula and Moscow universities. From 1962 to 1973 she taught at Moscow's Lumumba University and from 1973 till 2001 was Professor at Keele University, England.

She is the author and editor of major studies of Joseph Brodsky, as well as publications on poets such as Akhmatova, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Khlebnikov and Mandelshtam. She has a particular interest in bringing living Russian literature to English audiences, organising the visits of many Russian writers and poets to Keele and other English universities. The post of Russian Poet in Residence at the University of Keele, as well as the Russian Poets Fund, were established thanks to her efforts.

More recently V. Polukhina has completed The Anthology of Poems Dedicated to Joseph Brodsky, under the title “Iz nezabyvshikh menia” (“By those who remember me”) which include sixteen British and two Irish poets.

In 2014 she was awarded the A.C.Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature.^[1]

Publications

Selected Books

• Joseph Brodsky: A Study of Metaphor: Ph.D. Dissertation, Keele University, three vols., 1985.
• Joseph Brodsky: A Poet for Our Time (Cambridge University Press, 1989, 2009), xx + 324pp.
• Brodsky’s Poetics and Aesthetics (London: The Macmillan Press, 1990, co-editor with Lev Loseff and contributor), x + 204pp.
• Brodsky Through the Eyes of his Contemporaries (New York: St. Martin's Press and Basingstoke/London: The Macmillan Press, 1992), xi + 257pp.
• Literary Tradition and Practice in Russian Culture. Papers from an International Conference on the occasion of the Seventieth birthday of Yu. M. Lotman, co-editor with Joe Andrew and Robert Reid, contributed an article (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1993), xii + 341pp.
• Russian Culture: Semiotic and Structure, co-editor with Joe Andrew and Robert Reid, contributed an article (Amsterdam: Russian Literature, Special issue – Ju.M. Lotman, I, XXXVI–II, November 1994).
• Structure and Tradition in Russian Society, co-editor with Joe Andrew and Robert Reid (Helsinki: Slavica Helsingiensia, 1994), 186pp.
• Brodsky through the Eyes of his Contemporaries, in Russian: 6. Brodskii glazami sovremennikov (Spb: Zvezda, 1997), 335 pp.
• Joseph Brodsky: The Art of a Poem, collected, edited and introduced, with Lev Loseff, contributed an article (London: The Macmillan Press, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), xv + 257pp.
• Joseph Brodsky, A Book of Interviews, in Russian: Iosif Brodskii, Kniga interv’iu, Collected and edited by V. Polukhina (M: Zakharov, 2000, 2005, 20072010), 783 pp.
• Brodsky as a Critic, guest editor Valentina Polukhina, (Amsterdam: Russian Literature, XLVII-III/IV, 1 April/15 May 2000).
• How Brodsky’s Poem Works, in Russian: Kak rabotaet stikhotvorenie Brodskogo. Iz issledovatelei slavistov na Zapade, edited by Lev Loseff & V. Polukhina (M: NLO, 2002), 303 pp.
• Brodsky’s Poetics, in Russian: Poetika Brodskogo. Sbornik nauchnykh trudov, edited by V. Polukhina, I. Fomenko & A, Stepanov (Tver’, 2003), 472 pp.
• Joseph Brodsky: Strategy of Reading, in Russian: Iosif Brodskii: Strategiya chteniya, edited by V. Polukhina, A. Korchinsky & Yu. Troitsky (M: Izdatel’stvo Ippolitova, 2005), 521 pp.
• An Anthology of Russian Women Poets, eds. V. Polukhina & D. Weissbort (University of Iowa Press, 2005).
• Brodsky through the Eyes of his Contemporaries in 3 volumes. In Russian: Brodskii glazami sovremennikov (SPb: Zvezda, 1997, 2006, 2010).
• Brodsky Through the Eyes of his Contemporaries, interviews with 21 poets, in English (Brighton, MA: Academic Studies, 2008), vol. I (1989-2003), 392pp.
• Brodsky Through the Eyes of his Contemporaries, interviews with 40 poets, writers, translators, friends and relatives, in English (Brighton, MA: Academic Studies, 2008), vol. II (1996-2008), 604pp.
• More than Himself, in Russian: Bol’she samogo sebia. O Brodskom (Tomsk: ID SK-C, 2009), 416 pp.
• Evterpa and Cleo of Joseph Brodsky. Chronology of his Life (Tomsk, 2012), in Russian (Томск: ID SK-C, 2012).
• Anthology of poems dedicated to Joseph Brodsky - Ia nezabyvshikh menia. Antologiya stikhov, posviashchennykh Brodskomu (Tomsk, 2015).

Selected Articles, Interviews, Reviews

• A Few General Observations on Brodsky's World, Screever, (Keele, 1978), no. 1, pз. 14-16.
• The «Strange” Theme in Brodsky’s Poetry, Essays in Poetics, 1979, vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 35–54.
• A Study of Metaphor in Progress: Poetry of Joseph Brodsky, Wiener Slawisticher Almanach, 1986, Bd. 17, pp. 149–185.
• Similarity in Disparity, Brodsky's Poetics and Aesthetics (London: Macmillan Press, 1990), editor Lev Loseff & V. Polukhina, pp. 150–175.
• “The Self in Exile», Writing in Exile. Renaissance and Modern Studies, Vol. 34, 1991, University of Nottingham, pp. 9–18;
• Brodsky's Poetic Self-Portrait, New Direction in Soviet Literature. Selected papers from the Fourth Congress of Soviet & East European Studies, Harrogate, 1990 (London, NY, 1992), pp. 122–137.
• «The Myth of the Poet and the Poet of the Myth: Russian Poets on Brodsky», Russian Writers on Russian Writers, Ed. by Faith Wigzell (Oxford/Providence, USA: Berg., 1994), pp. 139–159.
• In memory of Joseph Brodsky, British East-West Journal, no. 404, Sept. 1996, pp. 10–11.
• Obituary: Joseph Brodsky 1940-1996, Slavonica, vol. 2, no. 2, 1995/96, pp. 123–128.
• A Part of Speech. Poems by Joseph Brodsky, The Reference Guide to World Literature (Detroit: St. James Press, 1995), p. 188-191.
• Brodsky's View on Translation, Modern Poetry in Translation, 1996, no. 10, pp. 26–31.
• Joseph Brodsky, Encyclopedia of the Essays (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), pp. 113–115.
• More than One: The Doubles in Brodsky's Poetic World, Neo-Formalist Papers. Contributions to the Silver Jubilee Conference to mark 25 years of Neo-Formalist Circle (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998), pp. 222–243.
• Joseph Brodsky, «A Part of Speech», The Reference Guide to Russian Literature (London, 1999), pp. 195–196.
• Essay on Joseph Brodsky's «To Urania», The Reference Guide to Russian Literature, ed. Neil Cornwell (London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998), pp. 196–197.
• More than One: The Doubles in Brodsky's Poetic World, Twentieth-century Russian Literature: selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East-European Studies, Ed. Karen Ryan-Hayes (Macmillan Press, 2000), pp. 257–279.
• Pleasing the Shadows: Brodsky’s Debts to Pushkin and Dante, Semicerchio Rivista di Poesia Comparata, XXVIII (2003)/1), pp. 19–30.
• Pushkin and Brodsky: The Art of Self-deprication, Two Hundred Years of Pushkin. Vol. I: Pushkin’s Secrets: Russian Writers Reread and Rewrite Pushkin (Amsterdam, New York, 2003), pp. 153–174.
• The Poet’s Meow, Ars Interpres, 2004, no. 3 (Stockholm), pp. 111–113.
• Seamus Heaney in conversation with Valentina Polukhina, Ars Interpres, 2004, no. 3 (Stockholm), pp. 287–293.
• Les Murray in conversation with Valentina Polukhina, Ars Interpres, 2004, no. 3 (Stockholm), pp. 297–303.
• Seamus Heaney and Valentina Polukhina in Conversation, London Magazine, August/September 2007, pp. 58–70.
• Susan Sontag and Valentina Polukhina in Conversation, London Magazine, October/November 2007, pp. 45–57.
• Obituary: Elena Shvarts, Independent, 16 June 2010.
• Valentina Polukhina's Inerview with William Wadsworth on J. Brodsky, Herald of Europe, no. 7, pp. 142–150.
• Brodsky: The Last Poet in the Russian Heroic Tradition, Valentina Polukhina — David Bethea, Cardinal Points, Literary Journal, Vol. I, pp. 140–148.
• An interview with Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Selected Poems (M.: Carcanet, 2011), pp. 107–118.

References

1. The Benson Medal

External links

• Books by Valentina Polukhina
• News & Notes
• Thirteen Ways of Looking at Joseph Brodsky