Catalogue of the exhibition: ‘Osip Mandelstam: Word and Fate’

Devised jointly by Heidelberg and Granada, UNESCO Cities of Literature, in partnership with the Moscow State Literature Museum and the Centro Federico García Lorca, the catalogue of the exhibition Ósip Mandelstam: Word and Fate contains not only reproductions of the pieces on display, but also a series of essays by recognised specialists in Mandelstam’s works: Dmitri Bak, Pavel Nerler and Vladímir Mikusévich from Russia, Ralph Dutli and Urs Heftrich from Germany, and Sebastià Moranta Mas from Spain, as well as previously unpublished translations of some thirty poems and a detailed bibliography of one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century.

Dmitri Bak is the director of the Moscow State Literature Museum; Pavel Nerler chairs the Moscow Mandelstam Society, which published the first independent edition of Mandelstam’s complete works in Russian; Vladímir Mikusévich is a cultural researcher specialising in Russian–European relations; Ralph Dutli is a professor at the University of Heidelberg and Mandelstam’s biographer and editor of his complete works in German; Urs Heftrich leads the Slavic-philology department at the University of Heidelberg; and Sebastià Moranta Mas is a Romanist, Slavist and translator.

These specialists’ texts, which have been written exclusively for this book, value the Russian poet’s “nostalgia for a universal culture” while exploring his life and works, highlighting his defence of freedom and his cosmopolitan vocation, constantly seeking a European spirit above and beyond nationalistic delimitations.

Anastasia Alexandrova, Andrea Edel, Phillip Koban and Jesús Ortega (coordinators),

Osip Mandelstam: Word and Fate, Heidelberg/Granada, Wunderhorn, 2016

318 pp. / RRP in Spain: €22

On sale at the Centro Federico García Lorca bookshop, Plaza de la Romanilla, s/n, 18001 Granada