On The Poetics of Lyrical Visual. Book Review: Malkina V.Ya. Visual in Lyrics. Moscow: Editus Publ., 2026. 308 p.

This review examines V.Ya. Malkina’s book “The Visual in Lyrics”, published under the auspices of the “Visual in Literature” seminar at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Using examples from Russian and foreign lyric poetry of the past (primarily) century, V.Ya. Malkina examines the visual as an explication of the visible in lyrical plot and in verbal-visual imagery. The book specifically examines instances where lyric poetry interacts with various forms of visual art, examining various ekphrasis, as well as instances where genre nominations from the visual arts are incorporated into the titles of lyric poems, acquiring meanings linked to the genre nature of not only painting but also literature. Among the methodological discoveries made in the book, the unique algorithm for analyzing ekphrasis in lyric poetry stands out, as does the development of a unique visual poetics not only in lyric poetry but in literature in general. Ultimately, the importance of V.Ya. Malkina’s book “The Visual in Lyrics” is demonstrated both for the study of lyric literature and for the exploration of visual poetics in literary texts.