Russian Literature

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Eric

Mirabell, I admire the fact that you have, latently, a good knowledge of Russian. I had this with Dutch, which my mother gave to me when I was a baby. Persevere, it's worth it.

Nothing to admire, it's not due to any effort or talent of mine. it's just there. and it's my own fault that I speak russian like a very stupid German these days. ah, laziness, it always comes back to haunt youse.

russian is such a special language. i mean you speak it better than me: isn't the mixture of utter simplicity and metaphorical depth incredibly amazing? maybe that's cuz I'm German and we have these long and stiff structures and 'literary' equals using lots and lots of them, or it used to mean that, but I keep looking at the poems in my bi(?)lingual Celan translations book, in the russian section...and it has this weird flow...

such a beautiful language....

[Eric]

I had Dutch as a baby, as said, but hardly ever visited the Netherlands between the ages of twelve and thirty-five. But the fact that English was not the only language that counts (which seems to be more or less the experience of the vast majority of British people) did help me learn other languages, and make an attempt at pronouncing them properly, plus regarding them as equal to English - within the areas they are spoken.

So if you get a language free as a kid, don't neglect it all your life.

I don't speak Russian, as I don't know anyone to practise the spoken version on. But I find being able to read it at an intermediate level invaluable, especially now, in times of crisis. Some parts of the Russian press are quicker with news than what you find in the West European papers. Because Georgia is, after all, in the backyard of Russia, and a former part of the USSR.

But in order to read literature I would need to expand my vocabulary a good deal. Because the word "simplicity" is not one I would use about the language - for someone who has learn it artificially, as opposed to listening to his mum speak it. The verbal system, with what are termed "perfective" and "imperfective" verbs in the jargon, is very difficult to get a handle on. And the nouns are, unlike English, inflected. All sorts of endings, which matter. But reading is a passive activity - the words are already there on the page. So you have to recognise words, rather than having to generate them.

That Eureka book should indeed be translated into English in order to give people in Britain and America insights into Russian literature as something living, rather than consisting of a number of frozen classic icons written by people two centuries ago. There is a publishing house called Glas, based in England, and in Germany there must be several publishing houses that do Russian.

Looking at the internet, I can find the Lotman instute for Soviet and Russian culture in Bochum, named after the famous semioticist Yuri Lotman, who spent the last 30-40 years of his life teaching Russian literature in Tartu, Estonia. See:

Seminar für Slavistik und Lotman-Institut

[metin]

Originally Posted by Eric

But this was the depressing film Stalker, ...

Eric, why do you think Stalker is a depressing movie?

[Eric]

I thought that Stalker was a depressing movie first of all because of the doom-laden atmosphere, then because it showed the propensity of mankind to destroy (i.e. the country through the door, with a bomb). And thirdly, the very physical and visual aspects of the whole run down Orwellian life of the common man.

A much more optimistic film was The Mirror (Zerkalo) which showed some of the truly life-enhancing aspects of Russia (as it should be!).

But if you really want a depressing Tarkovsky film, his last one is so true to present-day reality. Bergman's early films, filmed on the island of Gotland, were often very depressing or morbid (e.g. Shame). Tarkovsky used the island for the setting of his last film Deliverance. This film shows people in a house, when a nuclear war has started. They are in the middle. But the truly horrifying part of this psychological intimate theatre drama is when you hear the rush of the missiles flying over Gotland, presumably between Russia and America. Given where the world is today, it sends shudders down your spine.

The light is crucial in this film. It is a muddy colour throughout the film. But at the very end, the light clears, becomes normal. This is a kind of happy ending. I hope this happens too in our present, all too real crisis.

[Eric]

I found two good books about recent Russian literature in the library the other day:

Russian Literature 1995-2002 - On the Threshold of the New Millennium, N.N. Shneidman, University of Toronto Press, 2004, 200 pages.

Literature, History and Identity in Post-Soviet Russia, 1991-2006, Rosalind Marsh, Peter Lang [publisher], 2007, 590 pages.

I'm reading the fatter, second book, which appears to include aspects of the Shneidman. Both books put recent Russian literature in context, which I personally find valuable.

[nnyhav]

Karen Vanuska on Nina Berberova in Sept OpenLettersMonthly

[Eric]

I'm sticking to my guns: I'm trying to find out what has been written recently in Russia. After all, Russia as a country is never out of the news, but Berberova died in 1993 in her nineties, after 25 years in Paris, and 40 years in the USA. Imagine if we only discussed pre-WWII English literature (because she wrote little after) written by Brits living in India and Alexandria, regarding anything written thereafter as "too modern for consideration"!

I want to know what Russians are writing now, in Russian, in Russia, the Baltics, the ex-USSR, etc.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Eric

I want to know what Russians are writing now, in Russian, in Russia, the Baltics, the ex-USSR, etc.

Serpent's Tail published Alexander Ikonnikov's Lizka and her Men last year, which is a novel from a young Russian writing. Writing now, as you say. It's his only translated novel thus far. There's a paragraph bio here. No idea how good it is, although the summary from the Complete Review was "appealing but ultimately too sketchy".

[Eric]

Good, Stewart, I'm glad you've found something. I found one review at:

Alexander Ikonnikov : Lizka and Her Men : Book Review

The fact that the book is post-perestroika is significant. I couldn't find very much about the author, except:

Alexandre Ikonnikov

And his other novel is in German translation "Taiga Blues":

Taiga Blues / Ikonnikow, Alexander - Lesen Sie Erfahrungsberichte

Alexander Ikonnikow

He comes from Kirov, well to the east of Moscow, and is not someone from the capital or Saint Petersburg, as most Russian authors seem to be. Ikonnikov evidently studied German and was an interpreter for a while, before devoting his life to writing. On a Russian website, it claims that he has only been published in Germany, not Russia, which is a curious fact:

bibliograf.ru

On another Russian website it says that not much is known about him except that he has a grotesque sense of humour and travels from time to time to Germany.

[Eric]

Another Russian writer available in English translation is Yuri Buida. The two books available appear to be The Prussian Bride (Dedalus, 2002) and The Zero Train (Dedalus, 2006).

The former book is a collection of stories. An Amazon article about the latter book, The Zero Train says:

Buida's 'TZT' is a harrowing and moving novella concerning the effects of Stalinism on the lives of ordinary Russians. It follows the lives of a group of volunteers who man Station Number 9 of the track which the Zero Train runs along once a day. Nobody knows the purpose of the train, where it is going or what it is carrying, but they all know that they must keep it running smoothly. Initially they embrace their jobs with enthusiasm, willingly accepting their parts in the running of the train. As time goes on, they start to question their roles, and the point of the train. Disillusionment sets in, but they cannot stop the train. Where initially they had been willing to do their jobs, the sinister presence of an NKVD colonel is eventually required to keep them going. All of the inhabitants of Station Number 9 eventually succumb, in one way or another, to the oppression of the Zero Train.

'TZT' is obviously an allegory for Stalinism, which began with the will of the people and ended by bewildering and frightening them. The communist revolution thundered on both with or without the support of the Russian people, and eventually without their understanding, becoming an oppressive presence in their lives. The allegory is obvious, but not laboured, and the story actually becomes rather subtle in the telling. Despite being relatively short, 'TZT' has some wonderfully fleshed out characters, especially Ivan Ardabyev, the closest thing the book has to a hero. The lives of all the characters at Station Number 9 are movingly recounted, so much so that the fates of all of them left a moving impression. That is no mean feat in a book of scarcely more than 100 pages, but Buida does it excellently. Although 'TZT' is undoubtedly a political book, its strength lies in its characters, not in its politics. 'TZT' is moving and enthralling, and a great example of modern Russian writing.

As far as I can work out, Buida was born in the Kaliningrad oblast (i.e. the area around the former East Prussian city of Königsberg) and was born in 1954. He now lives in Moscow. Regarded as a postmodernist.

Further information at:

http://www.complete-review.com/revie...tsu/buiday.htm

[Mirabell]

*grumbles*

all these damn short books...

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

*grumbles*

all these damn short books...

Oh, I don't know. To quote Chekhov:

“Oddly, I have now a mania for shortness. Whatever I read - my own or other people’s works - it all seems to me not short enough.”

[Eric]

I like to vary. Not too many 800-page books, one after the other. That's why Nothomb, Jacob's Room, short-stories and one or too other short things are in my sights just now. But the non-fiction book I'm reading about recent Russian literature is almost 600 pages long. Variety is the spice of life.

[nnyhav]

Originally Posted by Eric

I'm sticking to my guns: I'm trying to find out what has been written recently in Russia. After all, Russia as a country is never out of the news, but Berberova died in 1993 in her nineties, after 25 years in Paris, and 40 years in the USA. Imagine if we only discussed pre-WWII English literature (because she wrote little after) written by Brits living in India and Alexandria, regarding anything written thereafter as "too modern for consideration"!

I want to know what Russians are writing now, in Russian, in Russia, the Baltics, the ex-USSR, etc.

If you want to start a thread on contemporary Russian literature, to the exclusion of what it draws upon (and Russian lit more than others depends upon its history), go for it, but somewhere else, please. Berberova wasn't even Englished until the late 80s. (What, maybe everybody shoulda just STFU about Suite Francaise?) Too bad you don't possess an imagination that could conceive of both current and prior writing as being of interest, or that might admit that standing the test of time might indicate some winnowing out of the 99% of everything that's not up to snuff.

[Stewart]

I should also point out, Eric, that the Virginia Woolf you are currently reading isn't indicative of what's being written in Britain at the moment.

[Eric]

Yes, Stewart, I was aware of that Woolf (1882-1941) was about as ancient as Berberova (1901-1993). I'll be reading South of the River when I've finished the Woolf.

I'd rather not start a new thread, hiving off contemporary Russian literature from the rest. As Nnyhav so rightly points out, Russian literature very much depends on its history. That is indeed what the Rosalind Marsh book expands on, at length. One Russian novel I want to resume reading when I have time is Children of the Arbat by Anatoli Rybakov. I was very impressed when I read it, but broke off, for some reason, well over a year ago.

I see all literatures as embedded in a nation, a culture, and a series of epochs. Even (or, maybe, especially) the most introverted writings reflect a period, the national mood, the Zeitgeist, as does the Woolf I'm reading.

[Eric]

Let me try to explain what I'm trying to say about Russian literature.

In Britain, we have, for a century or more, been dealing with authors, translated rather slowly into English if compared with German or French, whom you could regard as "19th century Greats". The names are all too familiar: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Turgenev, Gogol, Goncharov, and several others. Even such a strange author as Gogol spent a good deal of time examining social matters. And all the authors pointed out the faults in Russian society.

In the 20th century, we were intrigued by the zaniness of Bulgakov and the anti-utopias of Zamyatin, but the name that dominates is Solzhenitsyn - again, a berater of ills and faults in Russia, within a historical perspective.

What I'm trying to ask is, now that Russia is again in a precarious situation, where the fork in the road could lead to democracy or dictatorship, why aren't we in Britain in the slightest bit interested in what is being written there now? Not crime novels by Georgian immigrants such as Akunin, but truly Russian writers, describing, in effect, the same territory as the 19th century Greats. Russia has undergone a huge upheaval over the past 15-20 years. There must be authors out there tackling post-Soviet Russia. But in Britain, I don't detect any enthusiasm to find who they are, have them translated, and read them.

[Eric]

I hope that GreenDoor can tell us about The Chronicles of Echo. I had never heard of Max Frei. I looked "him" up and finding that "he" is really the collaboration of one Svetlana Martynchik and Igor Stepin. What are these chronicles about?

As you are located in Russia, GreenDoor, I was wondering whether you've made it to the Moscow Book Fair which, I believe, opened a couple of days ago. This year, Ukraine is Guest of Honour. I read an article about it just now. There are so many book fairs going on at the same time, you can hardly keep up.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Eric

I hope that GreenDoor can tell us about The Chronicles of Echo. I had never heard of Max Frei. I looked "him" up and finding that "he" is really the collaboration of one Svetlana Martynchik and Igor Stepin. What are these chronicles about?

German amazon sez this

Die Russen kommen - Funny Fantasy voller Hintersinn und Magie. Absolut kultverdächtig! Max hat die ersten 29 Jahre seines Lebens als Tagträumer und schüchterner Nachtschwärmer verbracht, als sich seine Kneipenbekanntschaft Juffin Halli eines Tages als Chef der Geheimpolizei von Echo entpuppt. Und als ihm Sir Juffin sogar einen Job anbietet, erwachen in Max ganz neue Talente. Er lässt sein Leben als Loser hinter sich und ergreift die Chance, als Geheimpolizist auf Verbrecherjagd zu gehen, und zwar in Echo, der labyrinthischen Hauptstadt einer magischen Parallelwelt voller Überraschungen und Gefahren. Max taucht immer tiefer ein in das riskante Spiel, und findet Geschmack an dem Leben als supercooler Typ ...
Ein genialer Cocktail aus kultiger Fantastik, hintersinnigem Humor und mysteriösen Kriminalfällen!
Die fantastischen Abenteuer des Geheimpolizisten Max Frei in einer geheimnisvollen Parallelwelt, deren Bewohner magische Talente besitzen.

Amazon.de: Der Fremdling. Das Echo-Labyrinth 01.: Max Frei, Anna Serafin: Bücher

[Eric]

Yes, well, Mirabell: kultverdächtig. I think I've got the idea. I don't think this is a series, judging by the Amazon entries too, that is going to interest me.

I think that what I'm looking for in recent Russian literature is not so much unbridled fantasy and wacky descriptions, but something that, in a realistic or non-realistic way, tackles Russia. It is a huge country, one that we in the West know very little about. A lot of fantasy literature lifts itself away from its setting. But in the case of Russia, it is this very setting that fascinates me.

There must surely be a whole host of Russian authors that write anti-utopian novels, descriptions of everyday life, etc. The Park Kultury section of the Russian daily Gazeta.ru has fascinating-looking articles on a whole variety of authors - but it's all written in Russian, which I find hard to read. I'm looking for periodicals in English, German, etc., which present contemporary Russian authors, translated into languages I can read well, so that I can enter their world. I've seen names such as Oleg Radzinsky, Viktor Merezhko, Dmitri Bykov and others, but can find hardly anything about them in other languages.