Shamara and Other Stories by Svetlana s> Vasilenko Andrew Bromfield Helena Goscilo (review)

Abstract

5I2 SEER, 79, 3, 200 I imagery, with patternsof light and shade, colours and reflectivesurfacesthat permeate the text at everylevel. In this original and thought-provokingstudy, BrianBoyd has succeeded in transforming what was 'a paradigm of literary elusiveness' (p. 3) into an accessible, stimulatingand infinitelyengaging work.Not only this, but he has also offeredthe most cogent solution to a novel that has become 'a test case of apparent undecidability' (p. 3) without eliminating the potential for further enquiry, whilst providing fresh incentive for the continued exploration of Nabokov's most fugitiveand problematictexts. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies BARBARA WYLLIE University College London Vasilenko,Svetlana.Shamara andOther Stories. TranslatedbyAndrewBromfield et al.; edited and with an introductionby Helena Goscilo. Writingsfrom an Unbound Europe. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL, 2000. xxii + 245 pp. Notes. $15.95. THOUGH some of Svetlana Vasilenko's work will be familiar to readers of recent anthologiesof Russianwomen's fictionin translation,Shamara andOther Stories is the firstvolume of her collected work in English. The publication of her story 'Going after Goat Antelopes' in I983 marked her arrival on the literaryscene;later, as a member of theN'ovye Amazonki (New Amazons)group, Vasilenko played a major role in compiling, editing and publishing Ae pomniashchaia zla (SheWhoBears N'oGrudge) (Moscow, I990) andNovye Amazonki (Moscow, i 99I). The group endured criticismfor the 'naturalism'presented by the harsh and cruel conditions in many of its authors' texts, though they considered it a faithfuldepiction of Soviet society. Despite the proliferationof violence and cruelty in her works, Vasilenko's worldview is not uniformly bleak. Rather, the elements of sadisticprose are tempered with a liberal dose of 'redemptionand resurrectionthroughmiracle'(p. xx). Unlike many contemporary Russian women writers, Vasilenko acknowledges her feminism, and Goscilo notes the belief in 'gendered nature of destructiveaggression(masculine)and the salvatoryimpulse(feminine)'which pervadesthe volume as the foundationfor the author'sfeminism(p. xii). Men are largely superfluousin Vasilenko'sfictional worlds, characterizedby their tendencies towards 'sexual violence and "anomaly"' (p. xviii). In her introduction to this volume, Helena Goscilo identifies several putative links between Vasilenko's biography and works. An aeronautic or nuclear backdrop looms behind many of Vasilenko's stories, referencing her childhood in Kapustin Jar and reminding the reader that it is impossible to escape the (sometimes painful) technological lessons of the twentieth century. The collection opens with the 'video novella' Shamara,so classified for its composition of short and highly visual 'scenes'. These fragmented scenes trace the eponymous protagonist's quest for love and security from shore to dormitory to factory work, elucidating her conflicted marriage to Ustin and her rivalry with his love interest Natasha. The sharply bipolar swings and violent outbursts of Shamara, not to mention bizarre juxtapositions such as a REVIEWS 5I3 rape and a 'love scene', resultin a text that emanates chaos interspersedwith moments of tranquillity.Sufferingand quests are emblematic for Vasilenko, so it isfittingthat Shamara setsthe tone for the volume. 'Piggy',the tale of a pig's slaughterfraughtwith domestic subtexts,contains an embedded first-person narrative in which some of the gaps left by the heroine's discourse are filled. Vasilenko closes some of the distance between humans and animals by describing various characters in animal terms and anthropomorphizingVaska('piggy').The narrator'sunwittingtraumatization of her son when she forceshim to watch the pig's slaughterlater causesher to realize the extreme injustice inherent in gender stereotyping and reconsider her relationshipwith her own mother. 'Going After Goat Antelopes' revisitssome of the animal associationsand reverse anthropomorphizationpresent in 'Piggy'. The narratorearly establishes her self-conscious role as prey, watched along with a friend by two military men in a hotel restaurant.She then embarkson an adventure with another mysteriousman she meets in the restaurant,and the ensuing strange coincidences, religious imagery and forays of the imagination combine to produce a text that arises equally from dream-narrativeand folk tale. The narratorconfessesher own unreliability,a favouritedevice for Vasilenko;and the readeriseventuallyinvitedto envisiontworoutesto the samedenouement. 'Little Fool', identified by Goscilo as Vasilenko'sgreatest literaryachievement to date, is the longest work in this volume. Framedby scenes from the early I96os, the bulk of the novel takesplace in the 1930s.Vasilenkopresents a layered narrative:embedded within the text are numerous bits of history and...