Busch elaborates on this wonderfully suggestive statement, but for the shortstory reader, his elaboration is better left temporarily withheld. This translation is the first to present the full range of platonovs gift as a short story writer to an englishlanguage readership, showing why it is that joseph brodsky regarded platonov as the equal of joyce. This translation is the first to present the full range of platonovs gift as a short story writer to an englishlanguage readership, showing why it is that joseph brodsky regarded platonov as the equal of joyce, kafka and proust. Pdf the aspiration to create a better, fairer world is a central theme in platonovs work.
The return by andrei platonov from the return and other. This brings us to david hares adaptation, directed by jonathan kent. The concept of soul is one of the core ones in the history of culture and it includes the complex religious, philosophical, ethical, spiritual and mental content. Andrey platonov is considered the greatest postrevolution russian writer. Soul andrey platonovich platonov18991951 was the son of a railway worker. Andrei platonov chevengur pdf stalin called him scum. The foundation pit translated by robert and elizabeth. Given that hes up against titans such as gogol, tolstoy and chekhov this is quite a claim. The third son stood up abruptly, grabbed the edge of the coffin for support and suddenly fell to the floor. In that novella, a native son educated in moscow is sent home to turkmenistan to find his lost people.
Such is the difficulty of bringing to american readers a writer whose work was, at various points, suppressed, bowdlerized, and destroyed. The return and other stories isbn 9781846553387 pdf epub. Soul vintage classics kindle edition by platonov, andrey, berger, john, chandler, elizabeth, meerson, olga, chandler, robert. Although platonov was a communist, his works were banned in his own lifetime for their skeptical attitude toward collectivization and. The influence of andrey platonov 18991951, a gifted writer of the soviet era, has pervaded soviet and russian literature since the 1950s. Most excellent writers do this, but platonov perhaps belongs in a special league. A spiritual canticle of the soul and the bridegroom christ. Platonov and theories of modernism philip ross bullock abstract this article seeks to establish a genealogy of the notion of modernism with respect to platonov criticism in both the soviet union and the west. Andrey platonovs bleak vision of the central asian desert, soul, has been brought back to life by robert chandlers team of translators. The river potudan 1937, should introduce the student of russian to the complex thought and ideas that writers like platonov, despite the severity of the times, were able, and brave enough, to convey. P erhaps the most striking literary consequence of perestroika, standing out even amid the late 1980s flood of new publications and overturning of established truths, was the rediscovery of andrei platonov.
His brothers rushed into the room and carried him away, to revive him. The irish times called the book a hallucinatory, nightmarish parable of hysterical laughter and terrifying silences, and the independent referred to platonov as the most exciting russian writer to be rediscovered since the end of the soviet union. The soul of the title is not the celebrated russian soul. Andrei platonov was the pseudonym of andrei platonovich klementov 18991951, a soviet writer, poet, playwright and engineer whose. After having finished andrei platonov s soul, i am beginning to think that platonov may well be the best sovietera writer of fiction perhaps not quite on the same level as dostoyevsky and tolstoy, but amazing nonetheless. The foundation pit, written at the time of the brutal collectivization campaign of the late 1920s, plays out an image of equally brutal directnessa construction site on. Platonov, or the disinherited is jay scheibs remix of the traditions of shakespeareinthepark, the ribald nostalgia of the driveinmovie, and the unpredictability of liveonlocationbroadcasting to create a new livecinema performance.
Past and present views on the land of the philosophers ben w. I remember platonovs definition of soul or dzhan, as the wealth of the poor. Andrey platonovs factory of literature, uncreative. This document has been generated from xsl extensible stylesheet language source with renderx xep formatter, version 3. Just as horatio hit the pinnacle of his profession and financial success, things began to change. Yermolova rejected the play and it was not published until 1923. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading soul vintage classics. Soul, by andrey platonov, translated by robert chandler. Tragedy strikes horatio spafford writer of it is well with my soul. The soviet writer andrey platonov saw much of his work suppressed or censored in his lifetime.
Soul also represents a correction, of sorts, to a previous nyrb classics edition, the fierce and beautiful world, based on earlier platonov scholarship. The foundation pit by andrey platonov quarterly conversation. The return and other stories epub adobe drm can be read on any device that can open epub adobe drm. Born in 1899the same year as nabokovplatonov had previously been known only as the author of a handful of stories and tales who had, in the early 1930s, attracted the ire of soviet. Two puzzles dominate recent discussions of soviet literature and marxist aesthetics in the 1930s. The foundation pit the main characteristics distinguishing the work of the russian writer andrej platonovic platonov 18991951 are an individualized worldview and a typical writing style and language. It is dzhan, a word of turkish origin, meaning a soul seeking happiness. Not long thereafter, the great chicago fire destroyed nearly every real. So i find myself believing platonov to be a wonderful writer on the basis of reading a translation of a work that wasnt the work he wrote. But literature is a social phenomenon and therefore it needs to be developed by social collective force only under the leadership and editing drive of one person the writer. He is, however, a shining example of the confusion that characterizes the modern era. His chief translator robert chandler, in the introduction to the new platonov collection soul announces.
It turns out that this one proletarian member of the commune is not human, is the best in the village at identifying kulaks who must be annihilated as a class. After the famine of 1921, he largely abandoned literature for five years, working instead in land reclamation, supervising the digging of wells and the draining of swampland. Controversy exists about the actual date of birth, however, and some experts fix it at 28 august 16 august, old style. Sholokhov, gorky, pasternak, and bulgakov all thought he was the bees knees. A spiritual canticle of the soul and the bridegroom christ by st.
Platonov, i should add, is the last writer who can be accused of romanticising poverty. On the contrary, it seems that here and elsewhere in platonovs stories, the cult of the machine reaches its nadir, for the writer deliberately replaced it by a cult of nature notably in an. In recent decades, however, these lost works have reemerged, and the eerie poetry and poignant humanity of platonov s vision have become ever more clear. In recent decades, however, these lost works have reemerged, and the eerie poetry and poignant humanity of. Platonovs writing can retain enormous power in englishthe foreign reader can also now begin to get an idea of the shape of platonovs development as a writer. The authors soul should be united with the soul of collectivity, since without it an artist cannot possibly exist.
Download the foundation pit ebook for free in pdf and epub format. On the genesis of platonovs literary style in the voronez. His head bounced on the floorboards like a detached, strange object. The first is how the official soviet system tolerated and even at times celebrated such an idiosyncratic writer as andrei platonov, who in the last twentyfive years has emerged as the central literary artist of the time. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Essays and criticism on andrei platonov critical essays. Andrei platonov, august 28, 1899 january 5, 1951, was the pen name of andrei platonovich klimentov, a soviet author whose works anticipate existentialism. The two stalinism and communism are not the same thing. At one and the same time it is a drama, a comedy and a vaudeville. I may be wrong, but soul did strike me as advocating communistic principles, i. Frayn thought that platonov was an inaccurate title, as he felt that the play was not about an individual but a group of people and, in any case, only russian speakers knew how to pronounce platonov. But that said, it is chaotic in a way that bore a remarkable. It was the first largescale drama by chekhov, written specifically for maria yermolova, rising star of maly theatre.
On the genesis of platonovs literary style in the voronez period. The play was put together with a profligacy that was inexcusable, and conceivable only in the writer s youth. The subject of the research is the concept of soul one of the most important semantic components of andrei platonovs artistic world. Kliemtov born on 1 september 1899 20 august, old style in voronezh. Andrei platonov russian writer born on september 01, 1899, died on january 05, 1951 andrei platonov was the pen name of andrei platonovich klimentov russian.