Objects

Abstract

In the early 1930s, Mandelstam wrote a set of short poems about objects. These lyrics, read here from the perspective of modern thing-theory as well as early Soviet writings on ‘the thing’, occasion meditations on questions of aesthetics: What is the difference between a thing and an object? How much work should the viewer be expected to do to recover the original intention of the craftsman? Does social utility spoil beauty? These questions impinge on the value of found things like stones used by Mandelstam as metaphors for the kind of beautiful object that might look found rather than made, that is, anonymous and formally perfect. Should texts be written this way? Would that solve the problem of uncontrollable thought? The chapter concludes with a discussion of lyrics that, as pure poems, seek to operate according to an independent musical language. Can they remain aloof from the world and poetic biography?