Mark Yurievich Antsyferov [1946–2001] was a literary, theater and film critic, poet, and journalist.
In 1972 he graduated from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. In 1980 his book entitled “Pushkin and Nekrasov: the Sociology of Creativity” (“Pushkin i Nekrasov: sotsiologiia tvorchestva”) was issued. Unfortunately, his book under the title of “Hamlet and His Stage Impersonation” (“Gamlet i ego stsenicheskoe voploshchenie”) was announced, but the project remained unrealized. A finished section of the book with some minor bibliographical corrections was published in 2012. This section covers Andrei Tarkovsky’s production of “Hamlet” at the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theater (1977). It appears that this paper is interesting not only as a notable example of the 1970–1980s theatrical criticism. It gives evidence of the author’s profound knowledge in the situation in the Soviet theater of those years. This knowledge lets him uncover the reasons of the “inopportunity” of Tarkovsky’s version of “Hamlet”. An unexpected scenic interpretation of the Shakespearean hero’s story suggested by A. Tarkovsky gives M. Yu. Antsyferov an opportunity to reflect upon the fates of the Shakespeare’s tragedy in Russian cultural thesaurus, upon (im)possibility to come to the only right authorial understanding of the iconic character and upon the translatability of the Shakespearean thought.
Translated by B.N. Gaydin
Source: Antsyferov M. Iu. «Gamlet» Andreia Tarkovskogo [Electronic resource] // Informatsionno-gumanitarnyi portal «Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie». 2012. No. 5 (sentiabr' — oktiabr'). URL: http://www.zpu-journal.ru/e-zpu/2012/5/Antsyferov_Hamlet-Tarkovsky/ (retrieved on: 28.12.2012).
See also: