|Generate QR code
Open Access
Subscription Access
‘What really matters is talent…’
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2024-6-114-134
Abstract
The genre of a writer’s questionnaire is dismissed as marginal by high literature. It is, however, extremely useful to a researcher when it comes to garnering a rich body of historical and literary material. The article contains the first scholarly publication of the Russian section of the ‘International survey of populism,’ printed in the Parisian monthly La Grande Revue from October 1930 to February 1931. The writers who responded to the survey came from diverse generations and strata of Russian émigré literature: M. Aldanov, I. Bunin, B. Zaytsev, N. Gorodetsky, A. Ladinsky, V. Nabokov, M. Osorgin, M. Struve, I. Surguchyov, and V. Fokht. With rare exceptions (Struve and Surguchyov), the responses demonstrate the writers’ unanimous rejection of the class-based approach in literature and loathing of the populists’ openly leftist ideology, the bias of their obsolete aesthetic programme, and, prominently, the idea of subjugating artistic individuality to any doctrines. This incident of émigré writers’ collaborating in the French press complements the history of Franco-Russian cultural ties and throws light on the way Russian authors perceived such problems as literary movements, aesthetic agenda, and social mandate.
About the Author
N. G. Melnikov
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Nikolay G. Melnikov - Candidate of Philology
1 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991
References
1. Adamovich, G. (2015). Literary conversations. <Surrealism>. In: G. Adamovich, Collected works (18 vols). Vol. 2. Ed. by O. Korostelyov. Moscow: Izd. ‘Dmitry Sechin,’ pp. 113-114. (In Russ.)
2. Barbusse, H. (1986). Zola in 1932. Translated by L. Andreev and G. Kosikov. In: L. Andreev, ed., Calling things by their proper names. Manifestos of the masters of Western European literature of the 20th century. Moscow: Progress, pp. 73-81. (In Russ.)
3. Belodubrovsky, E. and Dolinin, A., eds. (2003). Letters of V. Nabokov to G. Struve. 1925-1931. Part 1. Zvezda, 11, pp. 115-150. (In Russ.)
4. Boulanger, M. (1929). Le populisme et le cas d’Eugene Sue. Figaro, 8 Septembre, p. 5. (In French).
5. Cossin, J. (1930a). Enquête internationale sur le populisme. La Grande Revue, 135(10), pp. 529-546. (In French).
6. Cossin, J. (1930b). Enquête internationale sur le populisme. La Grande Revue, 135(11), pp. 60-84. (In French).
7. Cossin, J. (1930c). Enquête internationale sur le populisme. La Grande Revue, 135(12), pp. 208-231. (In French).
8. Cossin, J. (1931a). Enquête internationale sur le populisme. La Grande Revue, 135(1), pp. 398-415. (In French).
9. Cossin, J. (1931b). Enquête internationale sur le populisme. Laо Fautil revenir aux Écoles litteraires? Grande enquete littéraire, directed by Gaston Picard. (1929). La Revue Mondiale, 1 Decembre, pp. 233-263; 15 Decembre, pp. 343-367. (In French).
10. History of French literature (4 vols). Vol. 4. (1963). Moscow: AN SSSR. (In Russ.)
11. Leconte, S. (2010). <Review: Le Monsieur de San-Francisco / Traduit du russe par Maurice. Paris: Bossard, 1921>. Translated by T. Marchenko. In: N. Melnikov, ed., The classic without retouching. The literary world on the works of I. A. Bunin: Critical reviews, essays, parodies. Moscow: Knizhnitsa, Russkiy put, pp. 546-548. (In Russ.)
12. Lemonnier, L. (1928). Un manifeste littéraire. Le roman populiste. L’OEuvre, 27 Août, p. 4. (In French).
13. Lemonnier, L. (1929). Populistes d’hier at de demain. L’OEuvre, 15 Octobre, p. 5. (In French).
14. Lemonnier, L. (1978). Manifesto of the populist novel. Translated by S. Brakhman. In: T. Balashova and F. Narkirier, eds., French writers on literature: Collected papers. Moscow: Progress, pp. 135-140. (In Russ.)
15. Livac, L. and Tassis, G., eds. (2005). Le Studio Franco-Russe: 1929-1931. Toronto: Toronto Slavic Library. (In French).
16. Livak, L. (2007). On the study of Russian émigrés in the intellectual and cultural life of France. In: Russian writers in Paris. A look at French literature. 1920-1940: International scientific conference. Geneva, 2005. Moscow: Russkiy put, pp. 200-215. (In Russ.)
17. Livak, L. (2010). Russian émigrés in intellectual life of interwar France: A bibliographical essay. Quebec: McGill-Queen’s U. P.
18. Melnikov, N., ed. (2002). Nabokov on Nabokov and beyond: Interviews, reviews, essays. Moscow: Nezavisimaya gazeta. (In Russ.)
19. Melnikov, N. (2023). The anatomy of literary success. On the first bestselling book in the literature of Russian emigration. Voprosy Literatury, 4, pp. 90-120. (In Russ.)
20. Nabokov, V. (2019). Think, write, speak. Uncollected essays, reviews, interviews and letters to the editor. Ed. by B. Boyd and A. Tolstoy. New York: Knopf.
21. Nos grande enquêtes. L’influence littéraire de la France à l’Etranger. (1924). Nouvelles Littéraires, 8 Novembre, p. 1. (In French).
22. Que pensez-vous du populisme? Notre literature poss’ede-t-elle des oeuvres populistes? (1930). Savoir et Beauté, 4; 5. (In French).
23. Tribunsky, P. (2022). Collecting I. Bunin’s materials in pre-war Czechoslovakia. In: N. Gritsenko, ed., Yearbook of Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russia
24. Abroad. 2021-2022. Moscow: Dom russkogo zarubezhya imeni Aleksandra Solzhenitsyna, pp. 121-145. (In Russ.)
Review
For citations:
Melnikov N.G. ‘What really matters is talent…’. Voprosy literatury. 2024;(6):114-134. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2024-6-114-134
Views:
80
Email this article 
