Melancholic Humor, Skepticism and Reflective Nostalgia. Igor\u2019 Guberman\u2019s Poetics of Paradox

Laura Salmon\u2019s second chapter, entitled Melancholic Humor, Skepticism and Reflective Nostalgia. Igor\u2019 Guberman\u2019s Poetics of Paradox, explores the \u2018gariki\u2019 produced in thousands by \ue9migr\ue9 poet Igor\u2019 Guberman. Constituting a genre invented by Guberman himself, the gariki consist of rhymed quatrains that tackle issues ranging widely from prison, drinking, and sex to the contradictory nature of God. When Guberman addresses feelings, toska is the primary exemplar: his brief texts illustrate the existential condition of marginality felt by a Russian Jew from the now nonexistent Soviet Union living as an \ue9migr\ue9 in Israel. Guberman writes with poignancy, skepticism, and humor, confirming a sense of identity that retains its drollness despite being irrevocably fractured and consequently imbued with melancholic feeling. Salmon situates the gariki within the larger historical context of Russian Jewish identity and a tradition of writing and reflecting upon the paradox of eternal non-belonging. Guberman\u2019s verses elaborate an awareness of his own liminal condition from the perspective of a philosophical skepticism, leading him to acknowledge \u2013 with wry melancholy \u2013 the paradoxical nature of human life