- 251 views
- 725 downloads
My Way or the Highway: Depictions of Society in the Travel Songs of B. Okudzhava, Yu. Vizbor, and V. Vysotsky
-
- Author / Creator
- Bakker, Ardelle O
-
Despite the intense popularity of Bard song in the former Soviet Union, research has only recently begun to analyze the lyrics of the songs and the political and artistic importance therein. Through close textual reading and taking into account the literary and cultural history, I analyze the music of Bulat Okudzhava, Yuri Vizbor, and Vladimir Vysotsky and the way in which these poet-singers conceptualize society. Using the theories of Jean Baudrillard and Michel de Certeau, I analyze how the travel songs of these Bards depict as a form of dissent utopias, dystopias, homotopias, and heterotopias in relation to the “cult of nature” and “cult of machine”, the metaphoric aspects of the road in relation to different segments of life, and finally the idea of movement as transformation and change. Throughout I also compare the Bards’ songs with the lyrics of select songs of American singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie.
-
- Graduation date
- Fall 2012
-
- Type of Item
- Thesis
-
- Degree
- Master of Arts
-
- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.