Les Récits de la Kolyma de Varlam Šalamov : une œuvre ouverte

Abstract

Varlam Šalamov's Kolyma Tales : an open work. Varlam Šalamov's Kolyma Tales is a monumental, fragmentée! whole which includes 145 stories divided into six cycles. In this article, the author argues that Šalamov's work should be treated as an open work that allows many différent interprétations and leaves much room for the reader's active participation. The cohésion of the whole dépends mainly on a complex system of various intertextual links (récurrent characters and situations, répétitions, thematic and symbolic echoes). Most links are only virtual connections, and the reader must actualize them by constructing a network of associations which bind the stories together but also reveal many ambiguities and contradictions in the global work. Thus the unity of the whole always remains fragile, problematic.