Sophia Parnok and the Writing of a Lesbian Poet's Life
In: Slavic review: interdisciplinary quarterly of Russian, Eurasian and East European studies, Band 51, Heft 2, S. 214-231
ISSN: 2325-7784
In a footnote to her detailed commentary on the poems of Sophia Parnok (1885-1933) Sophia Poliakova states that the poet "did not make a secret of" her lesbianism and that "many of her poems are incomprehensible without knowledge of this […] extremely personal [fact]." Yet, in her otherwise excellent discussion of the poet's creative development, Poliakova does not treat the crucially important relationship between Parnok's affectional preference and her creativity which, in my opinion, played a central role in the refining of what the poet referred to as a "voice like mine." Parnok's lesbian orientation was also partially responsible for the problems she encountered with Soviet censorship that effectively muffled her voice.