This dissertation, The Poetry and Thought of Gennady Aigi, chronicles Aigi's (1934-2006) development from a regional poet working mostly in Russian-Chuvash translation to a leading figure of the late-Soviet Moscow avant-garde and considers how he and other writers and artists have been marginalized in the Russian tradition both for their avant-garde aesthetics and their ethnic difference.

My introduction outlines the relation between poetry and power in the Russian literary tradition and discusses the ways in which oppressive regimes sought to control innovative and therefore dangerous writers by restricting their access to print. Along with other repressed writers in the Soviet metropolis, Aigi used this situation to his advantage, helping to create a performance-based literary milieu that became the 1960s Moscow avant-garde. The chapters move chronologically, and each treats a different aspect of Aigi's poetry and worldview within the context of the late-Soviet period. The first chapter discusses the importance of Chuvash language, culture, and literary tradition to Aigi's work and examines aspects of his language and imagery that are rooted in his Chuvash experience. The second chapter follows Aigi's transition from Chuvash to Russian in Moscow in the 1950s and his experimentation with Futurist-inspired poetic forms in the 1960s. The third chapter explores the themes of music, silence, and spirituality in Aigi's work of the 1970s, highlighting his friendship with the avant-garde composer Sofia Gubaidulina, and the fourth considers the intersection of personal and national grief in his work of the 1980s. The conclusion offers some thoughts on the place of Aigi's work in the postmodern, post-Soviet world and gives some suggestions for possible further study. The goal of the dissertation is to give a broad sampling and analysis of Aigi's work, which, despite Aigi's international stature as a poet, is still not widely studied in the United States. As a cultural study, the dissertation portrays the polarities of Soviet power and avant-garde innovation and contextualizes the modern struggle of poetry and ethics.