The Art of Indifference in Shalamov's Kolyma Tales

Abstract

In his Kolyma Tales, Soviet writer Varlam Shalamov represents the narrative duality or “double telling” characteristic of the Gulag survivor's story. In particular, in “Sententious” (“Sententsiia”) and “On Tick” (“Na predstavku”), Shalamov uses the motif of indifference in order to explore the psychological patterns and literary ramifications of the historical phenomenon of the Soviet Gulag.