Gulag Poetry. An Almost Unexplored Field of Research

Abstract

In the cartography of Russian studies a large area has been almost completely ignored, and that is Gulag poetry. It may be hard to believe, but to date only a limited number of articles have ever been devoted to this huge body of texts. It is quite a surprising fact, if we compare it with the importance that the study of poetry had in the scholarly research on literature generated from other traumatic historical contexts, such as Holocaust poetry, Apartheid poetry or the poetry of Afro-American authors concerning racism in the USA. This article will provide some insight into the difficulties of research into this topic, highlighting some of its many points of interest and analysing some of the main peculiarities of Gulag poetry which, in my opinion, deserve attention. It will finally delve deep into the question of trauma and poetry through the works of Nikolai Zabolotskii.