Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales: A Formalist Analysis by Nathaniel Golden

Abstract

II96 Reviews Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales: A Formalist Analysis. By NATHANIEL GOLDEN. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. 2004. I93 pp. /40. ISBN 90-420-I I98-X. Varlam Shalamov iswithout question amajor figure inRussian literature in themid to late twentieth century, though one suspects still appreciated more for the docu mentary value of his writings on the Gulag experience than for their literary quality. It is therefore toNathaniel Golden's credit that he has attempted to read a selection of Shalamov's stories precisely for their literary worth, or, to use the Formalist term (which Golden himself repeats in the conclusion to his study), their 'essential literari ness' (p. I84). He argues that a Formalist (or,more properly, neo-Formalist) approach allows the dominant formal or structural feature of each short narrative to be iden tified and analysed in an effective and dispassionate way, so that the reader begins to appreciate better the techniques Shalamov employs rather than simply succumbing to shock at the hellish reality the stories portray. Golden draws heavily on L. Michael O'Toole's study Structure, Style and Interpretation in theRussian Short Story (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, I982), aswell aswork by other British and European scholars associated with neo-Formalism; in addition, his discussion of nar rative is informed by now classic studies of narratology (Rimmon-Keenan, Genette, Scholes and Kellogg, and others). Taking his cue from O'Toole, Golden divides his work into five chapters, in each of which a different 'dominant' is the central focus; in order, these are narrative struc ture, point of view, fabula and sujet, characterization, and setting. However, at times rather confusingly, each chapter is then split into sections where each of the other 'dominants' is discussed, following a general introduction. For instance, the story 'Lend-Lease' is discussed as an example where setting is dominant: yet after intro ductory remarks, there follow the subheadings 'Narrative Structure', 'Point of View', 'Fabula and Sujet', and 'Characterisation'. One can see why this is done, and yet, even though Golden is able to persuade his reader at times that, say, characterization is subordinate to and contributes to setting, nevertheless it does seem a rather laboured and mechanical approach to a reading of his chosen texts. On top of this, the writing is often turgid and awkward, so that it can be hard work for the reader to see the underlying point to a particular topic of discussion (perhaps some stronger editorial intervention would not have gone amiss). One of the striking features of Shalamov's narratives is the extent to which his narrator and the world he inhabits are alienated from the reader's (and indeed Sha lamov's, post-Kolyma) everyday experiences and values. Put another way, much of the shock effect enacted by these stories comes from the deadpan, disengaged tone with which they are narrated. Golden does refer to this feature at times, speaking, for instance, of the 'power of estrangement' (p. I84), and yet this glaring case of Formalist ostranenie is too often lost from view, while to this reader at least it should be amajor focus in a Formalist-inspired reading of these texts. Neither is there any attempt to define the stories as belonging to a special category of narrative discourse (though in his introduction Golden quotes Leona Toker's view that these texts are 'documentary prose', neither fully factual nor fictional), whereas a formal or structural analysis of the texts should surely be grounded in a consideration of this special status of these nar ratives. This in turn leads us to twomajor weaknesses of Golden's work. Firstly, little consideration isgiven to the position of the individual stories chosen for consideration as part of a greater whole, whereas it seems to this reader at least that intertextual ity is a critical issue with Shalamov, most obviously on the level of interconnections (structural, characterological, thematic) between different Kolyma stories, and less transparently, though perhaps more significantly, with the Russian literary canon. A second significant flaw is the inability of the author to engage with Russian language sources. While Golden's analyses are useful on one level, there is always a MLR, I0I .4...