Sukhbat Aflatuni. How to kill a literature. Sketches on literary politics and literature in the early 21st century

Abstract

In her review of the writer and critic Evgeny Abdullaev’s (Sukhbat Aflatuni’s) How to kill a literature [Kak ubit literaturu], Zhuchkova lists the phenomena of contemporary literary process that, according to Abdullaev, are lethal to literature: literary politics, literary economics, prizes, creative writing workshops, and many others typical of the post-Soviet literary process. The reviewer also emphasises Abdullaev’s positive programme based on his beliefs and arguments about the importance of succession in literature and history and careful treatment of the language. Abduallev rejects a one-dimensional and profane approach to literature and substitution of literature with management, maintaining that a critic’s essential qualities include self-respect and professionalism, loyalty to the criteria of high literature and faith in the Russian language. In a separate section, the review portrays Abdullaev as a critic and describes his professional and human qualities and talents.