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The Prose of Vladimir Makanin, 1987-1995 Sarah Kate Jackson

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The Prose of Vladimir Makanin, 1987-1995 Sarah Kate Jackson A Memorable Time: the prose of Vladimir Makanin, 1987-1995 Sarah Kate Jackson Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies February 2001 A MEMORABLE TIME: THE PROSE OF VLADIMIR MAKANIN, 1987-1995 by SARAH KATE JACKSON PhD February 2001 Abstract Spanning over three decades, the prose of Vladimir Makanin bears witness to the extraordinary changes SovietlRussian society and literature have undergone, and to which he, as a writer, has been continually exposed. The focus of the thesis is Makanin's abiding concern with the condition of man; man as individual and man as a collective term. The position of man in time (contemporaneity), out of time (the eternal memory of man), and through time (the past, present and future). Despite this apparent central concern, the author's prose is constantly changing, and what seemed previously to be absolutes are subverted. In this unstable environment the author continually expresses the reality in which he perceives man to be, until the concepts of 'reality' and the nature of 'man' are themselves destabilised. Chapter 1 provides an introductory overview of Makanin' s literary career and critical reception. The five core chapters examine different presentations of man's condition. Chapter 2 discusses the tension of the individual amongst the collective, with particular emphasis on the spatial representation of this dilemma. The third chapter is an examination of the incorporation of parables, myths and legends, revealing attempts to depict a 'higher reality' and also the author's means of overcoming socialist realism's censorship constraints. In Chapter 4, the author's concept of 'genetic memory' is considered as a temporal and spatial construct for examining man's individuality and condition in contemporary society. This chapter additionally highlights the author's move from his early social realist depictions revealed in the first two chapters, to his later interest in Russian postmodern theories found in the following two chapters. In Chapters 5 and 6 Makanin's ideas on narrative, history, and man's postmodern condition are analysed. The final text to be discussed, Kavkazskii plennyi, is examined as an innovation in Makanin's philosophy and postmodem prose. Preface Transliteration in the thesis follows the Library of Congress system without diacritics. All quotations are in Russian, with the exception of those of two words or less in a sentence which are transliterated for ease of reading. The titles of all authors' texts are italicised, except for individual narratives in a cycle of stories. Contents Page Chapter 1 Introductory overview and critical reception Chapter 2 'Those who did not get into the choir': the tension of 53 the individual facing the collective Chapter 3 Mythical man in a legendary world 106 Chapter 4 'Through the Looking Glass': a reflective view of the concept of genetic memory 154 Chapter 5 The position of writer and narrative 205 Chapter 6 Soviet and Russian History: the memorable past 256 Chapter 7 Conclusion 303 Bibliography 306 CHAPTER 1 Introductory overview and critical reception Vladimir Semenovich Makanin has, for many years, followed an isolated and turbulent literary path. Although his first work Priamaia liniia received moderate praise on its publication in 1965, Makanin then encountered many publishing difficulties and even periods of virtual obscurity. 1 Only from the late 1970s did the situation change: delayed recognition in Russia and more recent international acclaim introduced a positive turnaround in the author's career. The catalyst for his world-wide recognition was undoubtedly the 1993 Russian Booker Prize award for Stol, pokrytyi suknom i s grafinom poseredine, although this was not without controversy (an intrinsic part of the Russian as well, it would appear, as the British Booker awards!). Critics considered Laz, shortlisted for the 1992 prize, to have been of higher literary merit and hence the award in 1993 was in their eyes a compensatory gesture: more a reward for Makanin's reputation as a writer than for the quality of the text in question? 1 Priamaia liniia, Moskva (1965:8),4-109. A review of this text by V. Akimov, for example, is an encouraging one (see bibliography). In an interview with Vitalii Amurskii, Makanin states that the chief editor at Moskva generously published his first work relatively swiftly. However, this was not the case with subsequent texts. See Vitalii Amurskii, ''' ... Siiuminutnye temy menia malo volnuiut''', Russkaia mysl', 11 January 1991. 2 Stol, pokrytyi suknom i s grafinom poseredine, Znamia (1993:1),9-53; Laz, Novyi mir (1991: 5), 92-13 3. There is one significant article devoted to the Booker Prize in European recognition gradually increased throughout the 1980s, particularly towards the end of the decade, with the publication of various multi-faceted texts considered by critics and reviewers to have been written in the postmodernist vein, 3 and has recently culminated in 1998 with the literary stir surrounding Andegraund, iii Geroi nasheKo general: Sally Dalton-Brown, 'Lucrative literature: the Booker Prize in Russia', Europa, 2 (1994), 23-33. There is, however, an overview of preceding awards in the introductory section of Arch Tait's article, 'The Awarding of the Third Russian Booker Prize', Modern Language Review, 92 (1997), 660-77. Articles devoted to the 1993 prize include: Konstantin Kedrov, 'Premiia Bukera - Vladimiru Makaninu', /zvestiia, 16 December 1993, p. 6; AlIa Latynina, 'The Russian Booker: Rewarding Reputation ... ', Times Literary Supplement, 7 January 1994, p. 10. See also Dalton­ Brown, 'Lucrative literature .. .', p. 27 for additional article references. 3 The numerous translations of these texts are a good indication of the interest surrounding them. European publishers, however, were quicker than their British counterparts to produce the translations, and some became best-sellers. For example, see Zuzana Stolz-Hladky, Studien zur Poetik Vladimir S. Makanins "Odin i odna ", "Otstavsij", "Vtrata" (Bern: Peter Lang, 1995), pp. 169-70. German translations of Makanin's texts began to appear as early as 1978. According to Makanin himself, the Booker Prize has been significant in that it has brought his prose to the attention of the British public. In Germany eight books had already been published by this time, and eleven in France. This information is from a video interview at Keele University with Makanin conducted by Valentina Polukhina during his visit to England, 24 October 1995. 2 vremeni, the first work which he himself terms a novel. 4 His career well reflects the troubled times through which Soviet and Russian writers have been buffeted, times which the author has himself incorporated within his prose to both aesthetic and historical effect. However, to date there has been no full overview of Makanin' s prose either in Russian or in Western criticism. In the light of this, the present chapter will examine Makanin's background and literary career, providing a brief overview of his work and the numerous ideas therein, particularly in the context of the Soviet and Russian governments' official attitudes to literature in the period in question. Critics have touched upon these areas to a greater or lesser degree in their articles, and then proceeded to publish extremely divergent opinions on all aspects of Makanin' s prose. An examination of these opposing views and their implications, particularly concerning the application of literary labels such as sorokaletnie, will then provide the context for an assessment of the author's position in contemporary Russian literature. Finally, the chapter will establish the parameters and theory underpinning the present study. The author's background and publications 4 Andegraund, iii Geroi nashego vremeni, Znamia (1998:1-4), 5-106; 32-96; 69-137; 53-116. Makanin claims that journal editors have designated earlier texts as novels, but that this has been a mistake. This was discussed in my interview with the author held in Moscow's Dom literatorov in December 1994. 3 Ironically, Makanin's first publication was not a literary one: after graduating in mechanical mathematics from Moscow University, he remained in this field for approximately five years, publishing a work on linear programming and weapons technology in his late twenties. 5 Only then did he turn his attention to the arts, enrolling on a film-maker's and director's course and later adapting Priamaia liniia into an unsuccessful film. 6 Since 1965, he has published over sixty works at more or 5 See 'On Reading Makanin', afterword in Mary Ann Szporluk, E,~'cape Hatch and The Long Road Ahead: Two Novellas by Vladimir Makanin (Dana Point: Ardis, 1996), pp. 183-92 (p. 183). AlIa Marchenko states that the author spent up to ten years in the mathematics field after graduation. Alia Marchenko, 'Zapakh svoei tropy', afterword in V. Makanin, Otstavshii: Povesti i rasskazy (Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1988), pp. 423-31 (p. 423). However, in his video interview at Sheffield University in 1995, Makanin declares that he spent 5-6 years in this area: interview conducted by Elena Chopchits, 27 October 1995. Additional biographical information can be found in Byron Lindsey, 'Translator's Preface', The Loss: A Novella and Two Short Stories, translated by Byron Lindsey (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1998), pp. ix-xvi. 6 See A. Marchenko, 'Zapakh svoei ... ', pp. 423-4. There is disagreement amongst critics as to whether Makanin first wrote the film script and then adapted this into a povest', or vice versa. Marchenko adheres to the former chronology; however, in the Amurskii interview Makanin clearly says that the poves! ' was written first. 4 less regular intervals, apart from a lengthy period of inactivity following a serious car accident in 1972. 7 Priamaia liniia was successfully published in the journal Moskva, yet Makanin's subsequent prose was refused publication by journal editors and therefore the majority of this work first appeared in book form.
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