Ermolin, E. (2019). Resetting the obvious to zero. A crisis of reliable truths in 20th-c. lite¬rature and journalism: A monograph. Yaroslavl: Fakel. (In Russ.)

Abstract

Evgeny Ermolin, a renowned critic, essay writer, cultural historian and blogger, sets out to retrace his verbal footprint in this world. In his book, he follows the changes in literary and literary-journalistic spaces over time. The main bulk of the material comes from articles printed in the journals Druzhba Narodov, Znamya, Kontinent, Neva, Noviy Mir, and Oktyabr, as well as hitherto unpublished pieces. Selecting his earlier written works for the book, Ermolin brings them up to date in order to create a panoramic overview from today's perspective. The book describes literary and journalistic transformations and paradoxes: the author would defend the living word as a means to record the truth, first against ideological exploitation, and then relativism. He notes the change in the word's status: a shift from signifying and expressing a revealed truth to a search tool and a means of its situational recording, often in an interaction.