Tsvetaeva's Orphic Journeys in the Worlds of the Word

Book excerpt: Tsvetaeva's Orphic Journeys in the Worlds of the Word explores the rich theme of the myth of Orpheus as master narrative for poetic inspiration and creative survival in the life and work of Marina Tsvetaeva. Olga Peters Hasty establishes the basic themes of the Orphic Complex--the poet's longing to mediate between the embodied physical world and an "elsewhere," the poet's inability to do so, the primacy of the voice over the visual world, the insistence on concrete imagery, the costs of the poet's gift--and orders her arguments in the tragic shape of the Orpheus myth as it worked itself out organically in Tsvetaeva's own life. Hasty delineates the connections between the Orpheus myth and other key mythological and literary figures in the poet's life--including Alexander Blok, Anna Akhmatova, Alexander Pushkin, and Rainer Maria Rilke--to make an important and original critical contribution.