Reading every Russian writer seems to be reading all Russian writers

Topic: Contemporary Russian Literature Inherited in the Silver Age: "Memory and Memory" Beijing Sharing Session

  Time: 2021.3.21 (18:30)

  Location: Beijing·One-way Space (Chaoyang Joy City)

  Guest: Liu Wenfei, Russian research expert and translator

  Writer Xu Zechen

  Moderator: Bai Lin, former media person, young writer

  Organizer: CITIC Publishing·Generous

  Poet, poetic, poetic autobiography

  Is a literary product of the Silver Age

  Bai Lin: "Memory and Memory" is defined by academics as philosophical documentary prose.

It is a family memoir and an essay about some memory and historical processing issues. At the same time, it is also a travel record, and it is like a fictional novel.

The author Maria Stepanova is a popular female writer born in a Russian Jewish family in 1972. She is also a journalist, editor, publisher, and poet.

She herself is very active in the Russian literary world, and has also opened a well-known cultural website, providing fresh cultural information from all over the world to Russian readers.

  I personally feel that this book is not easy to read. It not only crosses genres, but also involves the history of Jews and Russia in the 20th century. It also involves European art, photography, painting, etc. These things are mixed together.

As readers, or researchers, what do you think of this somewhat mixed work?

  Liu Wenfei: To be honest, I don't find it difficult to read this book. I read it at a glance and it takes a day or two to finish it.

Because the content of what she wrote is very familiar, I am also familiar with this genre-Russians accept it as a novel, but to the Chinese it looks like a long prose.

  After reading Stepanova's "Memory", I immediately thought of Mandelstam's autobiography "The Noise of the Times", written in the 1920s.

We think that the 1920s was the silver age in a broad sense.

It is also more like Nabokov's "Say, Memories." Nabokov is also considered by us to be a writer of the Silver Age, but he was not that famous at the time.

What is it like?

Those of you who like Russian literature must have read Pasternak's "Safety Certificate" and "People and Things" in the same way.

In addition, Tsvetayeva and Akhmatova, although they have not written a long autobiography, they have written short stories, and the style of the short stories is exactly the same as this one.

Akhmatova always wanted to write an autobiography. Later, she saw Pasternak's "People and Events" and Mandelstam's "The Noise of Times", she said they wrote too well, she felt As a poet, she couldn't write a better autobiography than them, so she wouldn't write it.

  Russian autobiographical novels are divided into two major categories, one is Tolstoy’s "Childhood·Juvenile·Youth", and Gorky’s autobiographical trilogy that we have all read. This is a category, the so-called reality. The way of writing the doctrine is straightforward and straightforward, with no details; one category is the autobiography of the poets I just mentioned.

I want to emphasize that the autobiography of the poet, or we say the autobiography of poetry, poetic autobiography, is the product of literature in the Silver Age.

Before the Silver Age, Russians did not write autobiography in this way.

  But Stepanova is very far away from the Silver Age, and she writes so much like the autobiography of a poet in the Silver Age.

Pasternak, Mandelstam, Tsvetayeva and Akhmatova, the four of them basically represent the poetry of the Silver Age.

In the Anglo-American Russian literature research community, there is a saying about them called Big four.

These four people have all written prose, and their influence on Stepanova’s book is obvious. This book is still very traditional in genre. I read it not new and it is easier to accept it.

  Literature in the Silver Age

  It's not modern at all, it's very WTO-entered

  Liu Wenfei: Conversely, its content is very modern, even post-modern.

I feel that it is closely related to the Silver Age in form, but it is actually very "anti-Silver Age" in content.

  The writers of the Russian Silver Age regarded literature as sacred.

We often think of the Silver Age in Russia as a betrayal of the Russian realist tradition, but that is mainly in form.

In their view of literature, they are exactly the same as Belinsky and Tolstoy. Literature is not about eating and drinking, but literature is a terrible thing.

To cite a few small examples, for example, a group of painters in the Russian Silver Age ran a magazine called "Art World", which is very common. We look at it now, and no one would say that this name is too big.

But we went to look at the publication of this magazine and found that they wrote: "The human world that began with Christianity is the world of God. After the Renaissance, this world has become a human world. But since the Silver Age, we humans To enter the third stage, to enter the world of art."

  They are divided in this way.

It is not difficult for everyone to feel the importance of art and literature to the people of that era.

From god to man to art, this is the triple jump of mankind.

You have to look at the literature of the Silver Age from this perspective. It is not modern at all, and it is very popular in the world.

At that time, there was a great poet and writer named Andre Bere. He wrote an article titled "Symbolism as a World View."

We think that symbolism is an artistic technique. He thinks it is a view of the world. The title of this book can also be translated into "Symbolism is a View of the World", which may be closer to his original tone.

He thinks that art is to create a life.

We all feel that real life is not necessarily perfect, and we can only find a perfect life in art.

This kind of literature is very world-renowned.

  And let’s look at Stepanova. The title of the book is "Memory and Memories." This title is really difficult to translate, just like poetry.

The translator Li Chunyu translated "Memory and Memory", which I think is a very clever translation method.

In other words, this book is made for memory.

But let’s look at how she wrote the last paragraph. She said: “Memory is unreliable. One poet said that people cannot go back to the past; another poet said that forgetting is the beginning of existence.” Everyone must pay attention. , These two poets may be her own.

In other words, she commemorated the memory for a long time, and finally she was to deconstruct the memory, the memory is useless.

  After I thought about this, I was also very excited. I turned around and thought of a detail she wrote.

She said that she had never been to Saratov. This is the place where her ancestors went. Once a group in this place invited her to give a lecture. She said that my ancestors were here. Please check the local area and see my house. Which street and room I lived in at the time.

She went to see it.

She had mixed feelings in the courtyard, and she was so touched by herself. There was also a poetic saying: "This courtyard hugs me tightly." How beautiful!

She returned to Moscow with the emotion of her hometown. A few days later, she invited someone to call her and said: Martha, I'm sorry, we got the house number wrong.

Why did she write this detail?

It shows that memory is unreliable. The things she moved for a long time may not exist. I think she must have such intentions.

  So, why is it betrayed the tradition of the Silver Age?

It is a post-modern way and has begun to doubt literature.

Now we read literature more to experience the absurdity of life, not to feel how noble and sacred we are.

I think this is a big difference, in terms of writing attitude and writing posture.

  There is a strong tension between each person’s destiny and the country

  Xu Zechen: I am personally very interested in Russian literature. After reading Teacher Liu's book for so many years, I have a personal temperament similar to this one about the introduction and research of Russian literature.

  When reading this novel, a very strong feeling-I have always had a feeling in the past-it became particularly clear when this novel: reading Russian novels is very strange, you read every novel as if you are reading all Russian Fiction, every Russian writer you read seems to be reading all Russian writers.

Whether writing a very small personal narrative or a grand narrative in their works, you can see a very good and very natural fit and potential between personal history and public history.

Everyone’s history and personal history have a public history in the end, which can finally be embedded in the public history.

  The personal history they wrote has a great covering power, and can bring you that piece of history.

Everyone's destiny forms a strong tension with the country. You can't see this tension in most of the works of other countries.

The tension that has always existed between the characters and stories in the work and the history behind it is found in Russian literature.

Maybe this is a very important reason why I like Russian literature. Even if you read a short story, you can know the huge shadow behind it.

  When I read it, I did think that even if I didn’t take such a name—"Russian Literature since the Silver Age", I would think about it.

After reading this book, I turned up Nabokov’s "Lectures on Russian Literature". I was worried that there was a problem in understanding, but I found that it was indeed in the same line. When talking about Tolstoy, when talking about Doss Toyevsky, talking about Gorky... When I was reading that book, I always had a personal feeling. I would ask Teacher Liu for a while. Nabokov was completely scornful of "Quiet Don". I can't see it, I'm a bit uncomfortable at this point.

Because I reread "The Quiet Don" two years ago, I really like it.

I didn't particularly like it in the past, but after this time, especially after the age of 40, the feeling is really different.

  There is another thing I want to say. The props used in this book, or if the novel has a structure, I think it is a small object, including postcards, letters, and such small objects.

There is a sentence in the novel, which roughly means that without these seemingly useless little things in daily life, our memory cannot be attached.

These things have also been my favorites in recent years, and I have used them more in novels, which may have something to do with my understanding of history over the years.

Many small objects are used in my novel "Jerusalem", including the later "Northward".

  This idea came in 2010 when I was in the United States.

I often wandered around in various Midwestern towns, and I found that they had a very good habit, that is, this small town, even if there are only more than 100 people in this small town, would leave a small place in a very lively public place museum.

From the perspective of our five-thousand-year-old country, this museum may not add up to the value of a tile of ours, and they are not as old as the tile, but they have made a museum very seriously and solemnly.

For example, there are 50 households in this small town. There is a small grid in this museum. You can put your old objects, very interesting, a postcard, a letter, an old sewing machine, even a broken shoe. Take it out and put it in that place.

After reading these boxes, you can tell the history of each house.

  A good novel should be based on personal history to deconstruct the entire grand history

  Xu Zechen: There are one insignificant and trivial things in those small museums. Through them, you can trace the history of the family to the top-this American came from Norway, was a pirate, or came from Germany. Yes, how much the population is, and what is the entire migration process.

There are a lot of information attached to the small objects of daily life, and I was very moved when I saw it.

Since then, I have felt, what is the history presented in the novel?

We all write great history, and this great history is written air-to-air.

When we tell our history in accordance with the entire mainstream view of history and that rhythm, we are actually writing grandiose grandiose.

But I think for a novelist, a good novel should deconstruct the entire grand history with personal history, and write a big narrative with small narratives.

What does it rely on?

It depends on small objects.

The social information or life information attached to each small object can be clarified little by little, and I think the personal history is clear.

Each small object is not only an individual, but also an era.

  To a certain extent, this novel is anti-memory, or deconstructing memory, but it relies on memory, and it relies on small objects that can be attached to memory.

Although she doesn't believe in history, she can't help it. She is forced to identify with history.

For example, when I was reading this book, I also marked a place. There is a list in the chapter of Sebald. In addition to a colorful men’s cloth gown and an old black silk waistcoat, there are six wig sets. , An ivory cane, a Turkish pipe and so on.

These seem to be completely useless, but if you trace back each small object, you will find that each small object is related to the history and life of the time.

  I wrote an article about Tibet some time ago and checked a lot of information.

There is an Englishman, Younghusband, who is the prototype of the character in the movie "Red River Valley".

I read a piece of data. Before arriving in China, Younghusband packed his luggage. There were dozens of shirts, dozens of pants, dozens of coats and so on.

When I first read it, I thought, why is this thing written in such detail?

Later, I found out that all the clothes mentioned appeared on different occasions, especially important occasions.

  This small detail carries very important historical information. Rewinding from such information can rewind a huge history.

So when I was reading this novel, I saw every detail. In fact, most of what I outlined was not those golden-looking sentences, but some small details, such as a Turkish pipe. The historical situation is connected.

There is a saying in the novel that in that era, people who escaped from the huge body of the 20th century basically ran naked.

If you can carry so few things, what are you holding on to.

Well, each of those few things is worth talking about.

  In any case, I think this book is really worth reading and it is very beautiful.

This is what I think from the perspectives of an ordinary reader, a lover of Russian literature, and a writer.

  In the Silver Age, it was not fully grown

  A very wise child who died

  Beren: Both teachers talked about Nabokov just now, and Brodsky was mentioned in the opening.

If you like modern and contemporary Russian literature, there is still no way to bypass these two names.

In various versions of Russian literary history, it is said that Brodsky is the "grandson of the Silver Age", which means that he is still an heir.

Both Brodsky and Nabokov died. They were very well-known and talented at this time in the middle of the 20th century. They are already the heirs of the Silver Age.

Today's generation, such as Maria, who was born in 1972, is a very recent writer.

If you take them as a starting point, look at Maria’s generation, or even younger generations, such as many young writers and poets born after 1990, what is their inheritance of Silver Age literature?

  Liu Wenfei: Speaking of "grandson of the Silver Age", Brodsky is a descendant of the Silver Age, but I am afraid he is still a son, because he is Akhmatova's apprentice.

Akhmatova herself was a writer of the Silver Age. She often said that these poets were "my children", and other people's poems also wrote that they were "Akhmatova's orphans."

Akhmatova said: "I am not their mother, I am just their foster mother. They are orphans." This orphan is a metaphor—that is, they have no literary tradition. When they started writing, the tradition of the Silver Age was still Shielded.

  It's a bit like when the "Baiyangdian Poet" first started writing. Previous books were not allowed to read, even "A Dream of Red Mansions" were not allowed to read. Where did you learn your writing?

Bei Dao told me that he relied on the yellow book and "The Valley of Women", so he knew that poems could still be written like this.

If you were born and couldn't read any literary works when it was time to read literary works, it would be hard for a writer to imagine.

I think Brodsky still got the truth. Nabokov later came to the United States. We made him too English. He was already a very good writer and poet when he left Russia.

He was a formed poet, and then went to Europe.

He is only young, and he is not as famous as the "Four Great Masters", but we should still count Nabokov as a poet of the Silver Age.

  The Silver Age is forcibly interrupted. We are always making an assumption that if the Silver Age develops completely naturally, how much influence it will have in the world.

Literature in the Silver Age may develop very greatly. What are the reasons? Look at the modernists worldwide—literature, music, painting, literary theory, and even politics. Some people now count Lenin as being in the Silver Age.

Marx said that the socialist revolution can only be realized at the advanced stage of capitalist development.

Lenin said that the socialist revolution can also be achieved in the weak links of imperialism.

That is to say, Lenin's thoughts are revolutionary, such as Stravinsky's music, Kandinsky's paintings, and Russian formalism are all at this time.

Of course, some people will refute us, saying that if they don't have external power and exile, they can't do it.

I don't know if this possibility is possible.

In the Silver Age, there was not a very wise child who died at full growth.

  The overall temperament of literature in the Silver Age

  Is an aesthetic utopia

  Liu Wenfei: The entire Russian writers, including readers, have always had such a nostalgia for the literature of the Silver Age, which is both mysterious and incomplete.

The legacy of the Silver Age really began to be accepted, after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, at this time everything opened up.

This world is so wonderful. When everything is open, Russian writers and readers no longer have enthusiasm for the Silver Age, and a postmodern society has taken shape.

The current author thinks that the people of the Silver Age are too pretending, too hypocritical, so mysterious, they are all people on the ivory tower.

  Bolin: But Mirsky thinks they are very solemn.

  Liu Wenfei: Mirsky was a book written in the 1920s, and he no longer represents the mentality of modern Russians at all.

He is the same generation as the Silver Age, and he himself is a product of the Silver Age.

The Silver Age has basically been deconstructed to the present, but the cultural traditions of the Silver Age are still very important in Russia.

I remember someone said: "Russians are literary animals." You can't change his animality. Literature is something in the blood.

In this sense, if the Silver Age is the Russian Renaissance and a great literary age, it will never be outdated.

Mandelstam said that for a good poet and writer, don't try to win readers in the same generation. The readers of a good writer must exist in future generations, even in the next generation.

So he has this saying-"Poetry Drifting Bottle"-good literature must be recognized again after a generation.

It is not a real masterpiece if it is only understood by the contemporaries.

In this sense, someone will pick up the silver age literary drift bottle every one or two generations.

  Zechen just said that it was too polite to "ask for advice".

Don't take Nabokov's bad comments on "The Quiet Don" too seriously.

First of all, Nabokov is not a scholar, although he is very knowledgeable.

He is the best professor of literature at Cornell University in the United States. When he was in class, not only the literature department, but the whole school came to listen. He was a star professor, and in the end he resigned by himself.

He used the author's critical tone, I can say what I want, and in a sense there is a stance of grandstanding in it.

In addition, he was more or less ideological at the time.

Don’t forget that Nabokov didn’t get the Nobel Prize. He would be jealous. I was joking.

One of Sholokhov's main problems is the authorship. Everyone didn't like him, and his later life will be passed on to the West, about his network and style.

Therefore, in addition to Russia, among the world's writers, "The Quiet Don" is generally considered to be a good work, but this writer does not like it.

Don't care too much about Nabokov's things.

He said that the best writer was Gogol because he wrote the details.

Nabokov is not a critic of playing cards according to common sense.

If you read all kinds of weird evaluations of Russian literature, you can accept it more and spread it more; if you don't like it, just let it go.

These great critics, great writers, are a person just like us. He can have his views, and we can also have ours.

  Bai Lin: The live broadcast received a question from a reader. He wanted to ask Teacher Liu, what is the overall temperament of the silver age literature?

  Liu Wenfei: In a word, aesthetic utopia.

  Finishing/Yuyi