American pop stars could learn a thing or two about lyrical talent from their Russian counterparts.
Instead of fitting their own words to songs, Russian artists are setting the works of long-dead poets to music.
Marina Tsvetayeva is one such Russian poet whose work has been increasingly resurrected in modern Russian pop songs, earning her cultural icon status.
New Zealand's University of Canterbury associate professor Alexandra Smith delivered a lecture yesterday on Tsvetayeva's rising stardom. Smith is an expert on the works of Tsvetayeva and Aleksandr Pushkin, also a poet and considered the founder of modern Russian literature.
Smith's lecture focused on how Tsvetayeva's work has become a cultural commodity in Russia in the past few decades, elevating her image to that of a pop star. Smith's speech was supplemented with images and audio clips of Tsvetayeva's poems being used as song lyrics.
While Pushkin is still the most widely recognizable and popular Russian poet, according to Smith, she predicts that "Tsvetayeva's time is coming."
"The Pushkin myth was blown out of proportion in the 1990s. ... Tsvetayeva appeals to homosexuals, religious figures. She committed suicide in opposition to a political regime," Smith added.
Tsvetayeva was born in Moscow in 1892. During the Russian Revolution, she sided with the anti-communist White Army and immigrated to Berlin, Prague and eventually Paris. When she returned to the Soviet Union in 1938, her husband was shot and killed and her daughter was sent to a labor camp. Her poetry was censored and was not allowed to be published in Russia until the mid-20th century. She ended her own life in 1941.
In Russia today there are three museums, three monuments and a dozen documentaries dedicated to Tsvetayeva, as well as numerous songs that use her poems as lyrics.
Tsvetayeva's work has also become pervasive in the nationalistic trend of the Russian school curricula. She is "something that can sell," Smith said. "She is a product that could be worked with in many ways. That is what fascinates me."
"There are attempts to canonize her," Smith added, noting that Tsvetayeva has evolved from "an eccentric artist to a cultural figure, a brand name."
Julia Vaingurt, a lecturer teaching "Russia and the West" this semester, said she was intrigued by the topic of the lecture. Referring to the commodification of Tsvetayeva's work, she noted a "cross-fertilization of high and low culture, especially in music."
Julie Kruidenier, a Penn graduate student, attended the lecture because she is fascinated with Russian culture. She said she wanted to hear "how Russian pop culture could relate to American pop culture."
The lecture was held before an intimate audience in the Kade Center at 3401 Walnut St. The Department of Slavic Languages and Literature sponsored the event.
