„Mag es zweideutig klingen“ – zur Bedeutung eines bislang unpublizierten Briefes Andrej Tarkovskijs und dessen Stellung innerhalb der Entstehungs-geschichte von Zapečatlennoe vremja

Abstract

Summary Andrej Tarkovskij’s autograph manuscripts and annotated typescripts are archives of change. On the basis of an exemplary passage in a recently surfaced letter by Tarkovskij to Kitty Hunter Blair this article provides a text-critical introduction into the complex history of the creation and relation between the written records of ‘Zapečatlennoe vremja’ – Tarkovskij’s only book on film, which has remained a fragment. The textual witnesses – annotated Typescripts and manuscripts – scattered today among various (private) archives, raise the question of the possibility and form of representation within a reliable critical edition in the original language. This article argues that only scrupulous transcription and the precise exegesis of Tarkovskij’s overwritings, deletions, additions and rearrangements within the textual witnesses will allow an adequate interpretation. A term-historical article appears within the article for hermeneutical reasons: The Stalinist definition of ‘naturalism’ and how it was repressively used against Soviet artists is explained along with its ties to terror. The ‘naturalism’ critique as an accusation in the arts was put forward well beyond the dictator’s death and negatively affected also Tarkovskij’s work for decades. The passage from the letter discussed here, shows how Tarkovskij reflected and reacted to the conditions of Soviet (self-)censorship related to ‘naturalism’ critique. The interpretation this article gives of the passage in Tarkovskij’s letter relies on the analysis of differing textual witnesses of ‘Zapečatlennoe vremja’.