Il motivo dell'alcol nell'opera poetica di Vladimir Vysockij

While scholars have long noted and widely explored the fatal role played by alcohol in the life of Vladimir Vysockij, this article moves beyond their customary focus on biographical data to the poetic text itself to probe the importance and complex significance of the alcohol motif in Vysockij’s work. His case differs from those of other writers and poets (for example, Venedikt Erofeev and Oleg Grigor'ev) from the same period: for Vysockij drinking cannot be considered an existential form of protest, nor can it be equated with the act of writing. Nonetheless, the theme of alcohol and of its ambiguous and contradictory significance plays a central role in Vysockij’s poetic creation, not simply mirroring the ubiquitous presence of drink in Russian culture: as this paper will demonstrate, the theme and problem of alcohol was both incarnated by Vysockij himself and artistically explored in his poetic work in all of its manifestations.