Cultural Memory In Acmeist Poetry

"This study examines the role of memory in the poetry of the Russian Acmeists: Nikolai Gumilev, Osip Mandelstam, and Anna Akhmatova. These poets sought to preserve the cultural continuity that seemed to have been lost amid the great social upheavals that swept through Russia at the turn of the century. The Acmeists portray memory as the tangible evidence of spiritual inspiration in human thought. This relationship is elucidated by comparing the poetry to philosophical systems that demonstrate similar approaches. Gumilev emphasizes the distinction between instinct and intelligence in the same manner as Henri Bergson. Gumilev presents a spiritual 'biography' in the poem 'Pami︠a︡tʹ' in which memory integrates body and soul. Each of the five personalities in this poem displays a combination of intelligent and instinctive action in its effort to expand human spirituality through individual action. Mandelstam explores Bergson's understanding of memory and perception, and extends that notion to the sciences of biology and physics. Mandelstam's treatment of memory in relation to physical existence has much in common with systems theory as it has developed in the wake of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, and with the biological theories of Jean Baptiste Lamarck. Mandelstam uses these ideas to prove that the continuation of culture is vitally dependent on the creative freedom of the individual. Akhmatova's depiction of memory as it relates to human relationships parallels the model of psychological experience proposed by Carl Gustav Jung. Many of the figures that appear in her works share characteristics of Jung's archetypes: the Shadow, Animus, and Self. In Akhmatova's poetry, memory mediates the appearance of collective contents in personal consciousness, and informs the notions of guilt, retribution and redemption as they are experienced in the history of her culture"--Abstract.