Final answer:
Anna Akhmatova's 'Requiem' responds to her political torment a) through vivid imagery and symbolism, intertwining personal despair with collective suffering, while immortalizing the oppressed voices during Stalin's reign.
Step-by-step explanation:
Anna Akhmatova's Requiem is a self-conscious literary response to her political situation primarily through vivid imagery and symbolism. It does not focus solely on personal emotions, ignore political themes, or avoid self-reflection. Instead, Akhmatova's work weaves her personal despair and the collective suffering under Stalin's regime into a powerful poetic indictment against political oppression.
By chronicling the anguish and the resilience of those waiting outside the prisons, including herself, for news of their loved ones, Akhmatova uses her poetic craft to confront the realities of Soviet terror and to immortalize the voices of the repressed.