| Tatyana Tolstaya is one of the most highly respected fiction writers in contemporary Russia; she writes almost exclusively short stories (though she has recently published a futuristic, "anti-utopian" novella), which often focus on the lives, loves, illusions and desires of "little people" - the middling and middle class of Russia's cities, Petersburg in particular. Tolstaya has spent much of the last decade teaching at American colleges and universities; she has garnered a reputation for being an outspoken critic of American life (which she views as shallow and lacking in the depth associated with Russian life and culture) - and she has also been an outspoken opponent of feminist approaches to reading her own work. | |
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As you read these stories, I'd like you to consider the categories which Farraday uses in his writing to talk about contemporary Russian film culture; to some extent these categories can also be applied to contemporary fiction and poetry. Which of his categories seem relevant to Tolstaya - chernukha? "messianic elitism"? popular images of national identity? What to your mind distinguishes Tolstaya's prose style? You have gotten quite adept this semester at reading the techniques of film makers: how do you read Tolstaya's technique? How does Tolstaya's depiction of people's private lives compare with other authors we've read this semester (or films we've seen)? How would you situate her "world" relative to others we've read or viewed? In particular, how would you compare her depiction of everyday life in the late Soviet period to what we saw in Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears (or Little Vera) - or read about in Baranskaya? |
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