The Literary Works of Serge Charchoune: A Brief Review of Studies

Abstract

This article is a brief review of studies devoted to the literary works of Serge Charchoune. Sergei (Serge) Charchoune has been well-known as an abstract painter closely connected with the movements of Dadaism and Surrealism for a long time now. For a number of decades he took part in various exhibitions. There are a lot of articles, catalogues and books concerning his paintings. However, Charchoune left a lot of texts in both Russian and French. The author focuses on articles of domestic and foreign researchers that, however few they might be, demonstrate the main issues of the literary oeuvre of this émigré artist. The studies considered in the article show the peculiarities of Charchoune’s poetics and the genesis of his ideas. They determine the sources of Charchoune’s unique artistic manner ranging from avant-garde experiments to the traditions of classical Russian literature. The author considers the genre peculiarities of the epic The Character is more Interesting than the Novel and the role of magic realism in his creative work. The author also analyses his works from the point of view of their narrative structure and the features of their autobiographical space. Much attention is paid to the intertextual analysis of Charchoune’s solipsistic narrative Right Road and its explicit and implicit intertextual references. Another equally important aspect is Charchoune’s role in Gatarapak, a literary and artistic group, and in Palata poetov (The Chamber of Poets) and his participation in the French-Russian cultural dialogue. The author aims to give an analysis of research works devoted to the literary heritage of Serge Charchoune and provide an overview of approaches to the interpretation of his creative manner.