The chronicles of dull times. Alisa Ganieva

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of fiction and documentary prose of A. Ganieva and her personality as perceived by critics and readers. Following her entry into contemporary literary world on the back of a mystification (her first novel about the Caucasus, Salam to You, Dalgat! [Salam tebe, Dalgat!], was printed under a male pseudonym), and revealed to be a recognized author of ‘Dagestani prose,' Ganieva decided to break with the image of a writer of a single theme and set out to explore the modern realia of Russia as a whole (the topic of her 2018 novel Hurt Feelings [Oskorblyonnye chuvstva]). Similarly, the problem of time and various strategies adopted by people living and working in complicated and often hostile circumstances form the theme of Ganieva's biography of Lilya Brik. The critic concludes that both Ganieva's fiction and non-fiction writings have a feeling of a journalist-like detachment. Her typical protagonist fails to catch up with the changing reality, while cultural memory is cut unexpectedly short; the writer makes the point of showing a patchwork of the eternal and the temporary.