Russian Literature in Transition by Ian K. s> Lilly Henrietta Mondry (review)

Abstract

I52 SEER, 79, I, 2001 (pp. I83-204), Vasil Bykau (pp. 205-30), Ivan Ptashnikau(pp. 231-42) and Vladimir Karatkievich (pp. 243-82) conclude this part of the volume, to which are added very useful bibliographicalreferences (pp. 283-94) and an index of names and titles. In the first section, general remarkson the development of poetry in the Fiftiesare interwovenwith shortbiographicaland bibliographicalsketcheson a number of authors.This section also includes discussionsof texts and their themes. The more significant of these authors (five poets and three prosewriters )are given special chapters comprising three to four pages apiece. In the second section general remarks and discussion of minor authors are grouped into chapters with titles such as War, Patriotism, Village Prose, Innovation, Experimentation,and so on. Generaltrendswhich occurduringthetwodecadesaregivencorresponding subtitles:'Emergence of Darkness'for the Fifties, 'Traditionand Innovation' for the Sixties. The chapters on the four prominent authorsof the sixties are also labelled in a similarway: 'The Epic Redeemed', 'The Pain of Truth'and so on. In addition to a greatnumber of summariesof texts of differentgenres, the author lets the reader enjoy a wealth of quotations from these texts. Those from poetical texts are cited in Belarusian (with English translations in footnotes), whereas prose texts are given in English only. They enable the reader to draw his own conclusions regardingthe place of the authorswithin the development of Belarusianliteratureand how theymay be evaluatedfrom a comparativepoint of view. Since the generaldiscussionsfocus on authors,it is impossible to avoid an overlap of periods. One considerable advantage of this is that many books from the 1930s, 1940S as well as from the I970S and I980s are also mentioned, within a frameworkof discussion of more recent work. Thus McMillin's history of Belarusian literature in the 1950S and I96os presentsa livelypictureof the literaryprocessof these two decades in Belarus, when in the aftermath of the Stalin era the country had to struggle out of stuporand stagnation.Moreover, Belarussucceeded in regainingcontemporary European standardsand Vasil Bykauis highly regardedeven in Western Europe. It is hoped that this book will arouse interest in this small, but intriguing Slavic literature with a rich heritage of modernist literature which can be traced back to the first three decades of the last century. Belarusian Literature in theI950S and I960s, ReleaseandRenewaldeserves to be incorporated in comparative studies of literature as well as to find a broader European readership. InstitutffirInterdisziplindre BaltischeStudien FRIEDRICH SCHOLZ Universitdt Muinster i. Wesf Lilly,Ian K. and Mondry, Henrietta (eds).Russian Literature in Transition. Astra Press,Nottingham, I999. 126 Pp. Notes. /14.00 (paperback). THIS volume consists of five essays covering widely divergent topics within contemporaryRussianliterature.In theirintroduction,IanLillyandHenrietta REVIEWS I53 Mondry present some recent political background, providing a general context for analysis and also attempting to link the contents. They also emphasize that the essays centre around 'second-tier' Russian writers, implying an apology forpossiblemarginalityat the book'soutset. Lilly's essay, 'Three Russian Poets, Three Fates: Samoilov, Lisnianskaia and Kublanovskiiin the I 98os', beginswith a commentaryon the publication of Russian poetry in Kontinent and otherjournals. In the firstfew pages, Lilly outlines the history of Kontinent and its contents, including a plethora of statisticaldata in the process.Though he brieflycomparesthe threepoets, the essay's major focus is the separate paths they take. He notes the political aspects of David Samoilov's poems; the gradual evolution of Inna Lisnianskaia 'spoetic style;and the historicalreferentialityof Iurii Kublanovskii,for whom poetry is 'timeless and ultimately is universal in its impact' (p. 33). Lilly'shighly specializedworkincludes some syllabo-tonicversification;to his credit, he does endeavour to make this technical analysis accessible to the non-specialist. Alexandra Smith's article, 'Carnivalisingthe Canon: The Grotesque and the Subversive in Contemporary Russian Women's Prose (Petrushevskaia, Sadur, Tolstaia, Narbikova)', attempts to explore some of the disturbing elements present in the works of these prominent contemporary Russian authors.She appropriatesBakhtin'sculturalmodel to analysetheirworksas a responseto the traditionalmale canon. However, constraintsof spaceprovide an impossibly limiting framework for the thorough discussion this topic requires.Ironically,Smithlabelstheworkof these authorsas 'women'sprose', though both Liudmila Petrushevskaiaand Tat'iana Tolstaia have repeatedly statedthat theirworkshouldnot be classifiedas typical'women'swriting',nor should they be considered 'women writers' in the traditional sense or 'feminists'.She also claimsthat these...