- Melancholic Identities, Toska and Reflective Nostalgia
- Edited by Sara Dickinson, Laura Salmon
Melancholic Humor, Skepticism and Reflective Nostalgia. Igor’ Guberman’s Poetics of Paradox
- Laura Salmon
- © 2015 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/978-88-6655-822-4.06
The poetry of Israeli émigré Igor' Guberman, comprising thousands of quatrains (‘gariki’), represents a hybrid genre at the junction of Jewish aphoristic tradition, Russian oral folklore, and classical Russian poetry. The theme of toska, which is central to the gariki, may be sharply distinguished from the ‘restorative nostalgia’ theorized by Svetlana Boym (2001): Guberman's toska is a thoughtful, melancholic, and paradoxical feeling. It expresses a particular variety of skepticism that characterizes the paradoxical humor of the Ashkenazi, the purpose of which is not to ridicule others' shortcomings, but to gently make fun of the sadness and painful absurdity that impermeates human existence. Such melancholic and paradoxical humor permits Guberman to look at life, at himself, even at God, with an indulgent ‘smile of reason’ that is absolutely devoid of arrogance. A subtle melancholic and deep skeptic, Guberman "laughs through his tears", for this is what Russian-Jewish tradition teaches, a lesson that has penetrated deeply and more generally into Russian literature: when the soul is beset by excessive sadness, its has recourse only to laughter.
- Keywords:
- Guberman,
- gariki,
- paradox,
- humor,
- nostalgia,
- Russian-Jewish literature,
University of Genoa, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-2917-7630
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Chapter Information
Chapter Title
Melancholic Humor, Skepticism and Reflective Nostalgia. Igor’ Guberman’s Poetics of Paradox
Authors
Laura Salmon
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-6655-822-4.06
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2015
Copyright Information
© 2015 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Bibliographic Information
Book Title
Melancholic Identities, Toska and Reflective Nostalgia
Book Subtitle
Case Studies from Russian and Russian-Jewish Culture
Editors
Sara Dickinson, Laura Salmon
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
194
Publication Year
2015
Copyright Information
© 2015 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-6655-822-4
ISBN Print
978-88-6655-821-7
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-6655-822-4
eISBN (xml)
978-88-9273-384-8
Series Title
Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici
Series ISSN
2612-7687
Series E-ISSN
2612-7679