158 research outputs found
Andrei Platonov and the “Living Dialectic” of the Pushkinian Person
No full textThe article describes Andrei Platonov’s work in the journal Literary Critic, with a focus on the literary-critical dispute between the authors of the journal and the representatives of the official Soviet literary circles. The author studies Platonov’s articles about Pushkin, written for the poet’s jubilee. Platonov’s articles about
Pushkin represent an attempt to understand the legacy of Pushkin’s trope of artistic and political inspiration, or,
to use Platonov’s term for both, voodushevlenie, in the Stalinist 1930s. In his articles, Platonov deploys the Romantic myth of the poet as the voice of the silent Russian people. In “Pushkin and Gorky”, prominence is given to Platonov’s interpretation of the poem “The Prophet”, in relation to which Platonov formulates his understanding of
the poet’s legacy under socialism.
The article notes the contradiction between Platonov’s definition of the Soviet working masses as true inheritors of Pushkin’s creative activity and the recognition of Lenin, Stalin and Gorky as political and artistic followers
of the poet. The author draws conclusion that Platonov’s dialectical approach was an attempt to “overcome, to
overpower the most difficult and contradictory principles of work with a living, energetic, intellectual force”, a
“living principle”, which, Platonov believed, was born of suffering dispersed throughout the poor working people
of the Soviet Union and the rest of the world
PLATONOV AND A REPROCH AGAINST KARATAEV PHILOSOPHY: DO MORAL PRINCIPLES UNDERMINE BOLSHEVIST REVOLUTION?
No full textThe article is a study of Andrei Platonov’s ethical principles’ evolution and of the reasons for his writings’ victimization by the Soviet critics and authorities. One of the main charges against the writer was his “unhealthy Karataev-apery”. Trying to counter roughening and dehumanization caused by war i.a., Platonov was searching for new moral ideals capable of opposing evil. The article author traces Leo Tolstoy’s ethics influence on Platonov’s personal convictions and work. He pays special attention to the ethical conflict between the developing writer’s principles and the official Soviet ideology which interprets negatively Platon Karataev’s image and any accord with it. Today, the local military conflicts’ consequences, totalitarian regimes’ politics, consumerism contradictions constantly revert us to the basic notions of good and evil. The 20th century has taught us a lot, however not all its lessons have been adopted, and the task of highlighting the underlining of attacks against Platonov using modern experience seems important. This article traces Platonov’s views’ evolution using his works, letters and other sources. The author shows the way personal experience of Platonov – a Bolshevist mentality adept – lead to conviction that humanity saving depends on personal feeling unconnected to social or political surroundings. Keeping to the communist ideals, the writer attempts to reconcile them with love and compassion to one’s fellow creature which brings together Tolstoy’s and Platonov’s ethics. The author concludes that the utopian reasoning of both Tolstoy and Platonov is based upon belief in a human community founded on feelings immanent to every man’s soul. Such a community needs neither constraint nor administrative institutions – which represents its conflict with any state, most of all with a totalitarian one
Literary apocryphal work of Adrei Platonov
No full textНа материале одного из ранних произведений А. Платонова исследуется литературный апокриф как особый жанр в творчестве писателя. Анализируется процесс романизации апокрической модели, делается вывод о роли "Рассказа о многих интересных вещах" в формировании жанровой системы А. Платонова.The article examines the apocryphal genre in the writings by Andrei Platonov, basing its analysis on his early works. The apocryphal model is novelized by Platonov, the author claims - a statement that leads her to the conclusion about the significant role of Rasskaz o Mnogih Interesnyh Veshchah in the formation of Platonov's genre system
50 Years with Platonov
No full textThe article’s main theme is the author’s personal story of how he first came to know the work of Andrei Platonov, and how he then went on, in the course of 50 years, to translate into English a large part of Platonov’s legacy, beginning with his retellings of traditional folktales (skazki) and ending with the novel Chevengur. The author talks about his own first impression of the writer’s unusual style, the people he met through translating Platonov and the perceptions of Platonov’s Anglophone readers. Above all, the author focusses on the centrality, throughout Platonov’s oeuvre, of the aspiration to restore the emotionally and physically crippled to a state of wholeness, to give the lost and alienated a sense of belonging to something greater, to allow them to create families and a sense of community with others. The author illustrates this with examples from a variety of Platonov’s works; among these are the skazka “No- Arms,” the short stories “Takyr” and “The Return,” the short novel Soul (Dzhan), and Chevengur. The author also draws attention to various moments in Platonov’s work that can be seen as self-portraits
Literary apocryphal work of Adrei Platonov
No full textНа материале одного из ранних произведений А. Платонова исследуется литературный апокриф как особый жанр в творчестве писателя. Анализируется процесс романизации апокрической модели, делается вывод о роли "Рассказа о многих интересных вещах" в формировании жанровой системы А. Платонова.The article examines the apocryphal genre in the writings by Andrei Platonov, basing its analysis on his early works. The apocryphal model is novelized by Platonov, the author claims - a statement that leads her to the conclusion about the significant role of Rasskaz o Mnogih Interesnyh Veshchah in the formation of Platonov's genre system
Saltikov-Shedrin's traditions in literary creation of Andrey Platonov
No full textIn this article the author throws light on connections between the creative work of Andrey Platonov and satire of Mikhail Saltikov-Shedrin. Author deduces similarity of the destinies of two Great Russian writers; she notifies likeness of their literary stylistics, unity of their literary characters and vehicles
How to Translate Platonov without Seeming to be the Dullest Translator in the World
No full textThe article concerns the first and the main problem any translator of Platonov comes across: the way to find a right voice for the author in the foreign language and the very possibility to achieve this goal. The hardest part of this work lies in the fact that the right voice of Platonov is always an odd one, so the translator risks his or her reputation of a good and accurate translator
"To be a man ..." (based on the stories of A. Platonov "Across the sky at midnight ..." and "Trash wind")
No full textThe author of the article offers the developments applicable for conducting lessons on the works of A. Platonov
Paradigm of F. Dostoyevsky in the works of A. Platonov in 1920s
No full textThe article is devoted to the dialogue between Platonov and Dostoyevsky. The author underlines the way of perception of Dostoyevsky's ideas in his early works, the meaning of meeting Christian and scientific ethics. The author also examines the motif of children suffering and the ways of its overcoming. The situation when two brothers meet in "Chevengur" and "Brothers Karamasov" is analyzed in the article
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