Mandel 'shtam's Poetics – A Challenge to Postmodernism by Elena Glazov-Corrigan (review)

514 letters in canada 2001 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 for Stewart=s involvement. The second criticism is the length of the book. Cahill has done a masterful job piecing together the social, political, corporate, and legal history to make Stewart come alive to the reader. This reader, however, wanted more detail. In so many instances, I was left checking endnotes, wondering what else I could read on a particular subject. That said, the notes contain enough guidance for those who seek more information, so this is a minor criticism at best. The Thousandth Man paints a fascinating portrait of a leading lawyer indicative of his era. It is a genuine contribution to a growing body of historical literature dealing with law firms and the legal profession in Canada more generally, and will appeal to a wide audience. (PATRICIA MCMAHON) Elena Glazov-Corrigan. Mandel=shtam=s Poetics B A Challenge to Postmodernism University of Toronto Press 2000. xviii, 194. $45.00 Elena Glazov-Corrigan=s Mandel=shtam=s Poetics B A Challenge to Postmodernism sets itself a formidable task. Mandel=shtam=s theoretical writings are notorious for their virtuosity, complexity, inconsistency, and in some cases, self-contradiction. A book which presents a developed and coherent picture of Mandel=shtam=s many attempts to present a theory of art, of the poet, and of the reader, would be a welcome contribution to Mandel=shtam scholarship in and of itself. But Glazov-Corrigan has done more than this. Mandel=shtam=s Poetics B A Challenge to Postmodernism sustains an original argument which is not easily defended, that Mandel=shtam=s poetics foreshadow the theoretical concerns of postmodernism. As the author puts it: >The essential aims of this book are to recover something of Mandel=shtam =s voice and to resolve a curious tension, and yet suggestive interplay between Mandel=shtam=s writings on poetry and the problematic and challenging field of postmodern poetics.= Glazov-Corrigan succeeds admirably in convincing the reader of the validity of this difficult argument. The first four chapters of the book investigate the evolution of Mandel=shtam=s theoretical writings from 1913 to 1933. Chapter 5 is the self-described centre of the book, a detailed presentation of >Conversation about Dante= and >Journey to Armenia= as embodiments of Mandel=shtam=s mature poetics, indeed his >final word= on a theory of art. The sixth and concluding chapter takes us through the implications of Mandel=shtam=s poetics, placing important notions within the context of formalist, structuralist, and poststructuralist theory. The success of Glazov-Corrigan=s work lies in her method, which takes into account both the mutable and immutable aspects of Mandel=shtam=s theoretical writings. As she remarks, >my investigation traces the transformation of Mandel=shtam=s images by means of the chronological order of the prose works and uses this humanities 515 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 transformation as a key to his poetics.= In other words, Glazov-Corrigan=s work acknowledges the constant recurrence of images in Mandel=shtam=s writing over three decades, but also provides for the change and evolution of those images. Glazov-Corrigan=s careful close readings allow her successfully to challenge major Mandel=shtam critics such as Ronen and Terras, who hold that Mandel=shtam=s poetic views underwent no significant change from the 1920s to the 1930s. This book also presents a few important correctives to Harris=s Mandelstam: The Collected Critical Prose and Letters (1979), long established as the definitive translation and commentary on Mandel=shtam=s theoretical writings. Glazov-Corrigan herself makes use of Harris=s English-language translations throughout, making this book readily accessible to a non-Slavic reading audience. Mandel=shtam=s Poetics B A Challenge to Postmodernism convincingly demonstrates the intersections between Mandel=shtamian and postmodern theory on a number of levels, including the privileging of the blank or absence over presence and the notion of the text as >a multidimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash= (Barthes). Glazov-Corrigan also cites Mandel=shtam=s long-term engagement with artistic apprehension as a foreshadowing...