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‘A type of a literary Cheka agent’: G. Benn on S. Tretiakov’s Berlin lectures
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2021-5-72-87
Abstract
The article examines an incident in the history of Russo-German literary relations — the lectures delivered by a LEF (Leſt Front for Arts) leader Sergey Tretiakov in Germany (1930–1931) and their reception by German literary circles. Along with ecstatic feedback from leſtist writers, Tretiakov’s appearance provoked criticism from a more conservative public. It is to the criticism of the lecture from the viewpoint of ‘art for art’s sake’ that Gottfried Benn devotes his radio broadcast of ‘The New Literary Season’ (1931), subjected to a detailed analysis in this article. Although contesting Tretiakov’s views of the relationship between literature and politics, as well as offering their slightly cartoonish depiction, Benn provides a fairly detailed description of thetheses; it becomes an important source of information about the contents of Tretiakov’s lectures since one of them was never published. Comparing Benn’s rendering of Tretiakov’s ideas with other publications by Tretiakov, the author discovers that Benn presents an accurate summary of Tretiakov’s critical views on Russian classics and the role of a writer in a Socialist society.
About the Author
N. I. Kovalyov
A. M.Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Nikon I. Kovalyov, Candidate of Philology
25a Povarskaya St., Moscow, 121069
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Review
For citations:
Kovalyov N.I. ‘A type of a literary Cheka agent’: G. Benn on S. Tretiakov’s Berlin lectures. Voprosy literatury. 2021;(5):72-87. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2021-5-72-87
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