Traumatography of the Logos

This substantial article begins as a review of Irina Sandomirskaia’s 2013 book Blokada v slove [The Blockade in the Word], also discussing writing on traumatic experience in general, especially the Holocaust, with attention to work by poets Paul Celan and Robert Schindel. In often poetic prose, Vaizer cites recent poets in Russia whose writings let language express trauma precisely by breaking the classic poetic habits, and especially by rejecting the “smoothness” and self-censorship of Soviet-era linguistic usage. Vaizer also can be read for introductions to a number of interesting young poets.