Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Poetry is notoriously hard to translate, but polyglot Vladimir Nabokov very
insistently translated
Yegeny Onegin
, Pushkin's most famous work into
English, the result of which is largely panned by critics, but a fascinating
read all the same. Nabokov's system of translation is unique and great
way to understand a work most people consider inaccessible to non-Rus-
sians.
POSTCOMMUNIST ST PETERSBURG WRITING
The postglasnost era of the 1980s and 1990s uncovered a huge library of work that
had been suppressed during the Soviet period. Authors such as Yevgeny Zamyatin,
Danil Kharms, Anatoly Rybakov, Venedict Erofeev and Andrei Bitov - banned in the
Soviet Union - are now recognised for their cutting-edge commentary and significant
contributions to world literature.
Surprisingly, however, St Petersburg is not a magnet for Russian writers in the 21st
century (unlike artists and musicians). The contemporary literary scene is largely
based in Moscow, and, to some degree, abroad, as émigré writers continue to be in-
spired and disheartened by their motherland.
Action-packed thrillers and detective stories have become wildly popular in the
21st century, with Darya Dontsova, Alexandra Marinina and Boris Akunin ranking
among the best-selling and most widely translated authors. Realist writers such as
Tatyana Tolstaya and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya engage readers with their moving por-
traits of everyday people living their everyday lives. Meanwhile, social critics such as
Viktor Pelevin continue the Soviet literary tradition of using dark humour and fantast-
ical storylines to provide scathing social commentary.
Another very original interpretation of Gogol can be found in Vladimir
Nabo-kov's wonderful biography,
Nikolai Gogol
. Written in English by the
polyglot Nabokov, it discusses in English the impact of much of Gogol's
Russian language - something quite inaccessible to most readers!
Hearteningly, love of literature is an integral part of St Petersburg culture: ask any
Petersburger what books they like to read and they'll no doubt begin to wax rhapsod-
