Rethinking Friedrich Gorenstein: War, Politics, and Intertexts

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

There's no question that among the major Russian writers of the later Soviet period Friedrich Gorenstein remains the most understudied. Located at the intersection of Soviet, Russian, Jewish, Ukrainian, and exile contexts, his novels, stories, and plays form an incredibly rich and multifaceted oeuvre which requires a thorough scrutiny from a variety of historical, cultural, and theoretical angles. His texts speak not only to the catastrophes and traumas of his time (Stalinism, Holocaust, Holodomor, World War II), but illuminate the contemporary cataclysms as well. This panel will offer a number of provocative rereadings of Gorenstein in relation to other major writers and themes in order to configure not only his place within 20th century literary history, but also how his philosophy and imagination reshape our understanding of the late Soviet literary and cultural landscape and beyond. Radislav Lapushin will investigate Gorenstein's indebtedness to Chekhov, both obvious and coded, through Gorenstein's essays on Chekhov and discreet allusions to Chekhov in his texts. Ilze Olehnovica will analyze Gorenstein's novella “Winter 1953” about Stalinist terror in parallel to Solzhenitsyn's iconic story, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," presenting Gorenstein as a kind of opposition to Solzhenitsyn. Anna Schur will discuss Gorenstein's magnum opus, the novel "Mesto," as a uniquely political text and a key to understanding Gorensthtein’s aesthetic practice as a whole. Elina Vasiljeva will examine the topos of war in Gorenstein's works, from the depiction of the actual war events to reminiscences about the war to living in its aftermath.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 20th Century

Chair

• Marat Grinberg, Reed College

Papers

• The Hamlet of Russian Prose: Chekhov in the Mirror of Friedrich Gorenstein - Radislav Lapushin, UNC at Chapel Hill

• 'Winter 1953' by F. Gorenstein versus 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' by A. Solzhenitsyn - Ilze Olehnovica, Daugavpils U (Latvia)

• Images of the Political in Gorenstein’s Mesto - Anna Schur, Keene State College

• War in the Prose of F. Gorenstein - Elina Vasiljeva, Daugavpils U (Latvia)

Discussant

• Marat Grinberg, Reed College