RECEPTION OF MIKHAIL SHOLOKHOV’S OEUVRE THROUGH THE PRISM OF FRENCH PERIODICALS (IN TERMS OF VLADIMIR S. POZNER'S ARTICLE “SHOLOKHOV IN PARIS”)

Abstract

The article examines the specifics of the perception of the “And Quiet flows the Don” in France, how the “French” view of Mikhail Sholokhov’s novel helped to popularise the work of Nobel laureate abroad; the role of French periodicals in the further awarding of Nobel Prize to the writer is analysed. Russian writer and critic, representative of the Russian literary diaspora, Vladimir S. Pozner’s response about Mikhail Sholokhov in 1959 for the newspaper “Les Lettres françaises” becomes the object of the study, affecting the reception of Mikhail Sholokhov in France. His article is an overview of the personal and creative layers of the writer’s biography. V.S. Pozner attempts to remove the barriers of misunderstanding of M.Sholokhov’s works, in which most of the narrative is occupied by a description of purely Russian realities that are not entirely understandable to a European. Thus, the critic performs an important educational function. The article about Sholokhov is an example of a fruitful cross-cultural dialogue between East and West. Before us, there is not just the reception of M.Sholokhov's heritage in France, but the perception of the Soviet through the prism of a compatriot who has been living and creating abroad long enough to be able to make M.Sholokhov's image more accessible to the European mentality, but at the same time to feel the connection between personal and creative in M.Sholokhov more multidimensional and deeply. The act of such cross-cultural communication is for V.S. Pozner himself, in a sense, a return to his own roots. Thus, the reception of M.Sholokhov's legacy in France represents a separate milestone not only in M.Sholokhov studies, but also in diaspora studies and emigrantology.