E. Konstantinova interviews R. Senchin, a writer, journalist, shortlisted entry and winner of numerous literary prizes: Russian Booker (2009), National Bestseller (2010), The Culture Prize of the Russian Government (2012), Yasnaya Polyana (2014), The Big Book [Bolshaya Kniga] (2015), and others. They discuss Senchin’s personal creative experiments and discoveries as well as contemporary Russian prose in general. Senchin opines that modern literature, having digested the experiences of the ‘new realism’ of the 1990s–2000s, has moved on to discover writers’ individual characteristics and harness new subjects, including documentary ones. Given the limitations of the forms and methods of artistic literature, Senchin argues, an unexpected choice of topic, language, intonation or plot comes to the forefront. However, he prefers to stick to recognizable, traditional subjects and recurrent characters. The exploration of the motivations and personality of those characters (the writer Savateev and the office clerk Chashchin) takes up most of the interview.
The interview of E. Konstantinova with the prose and script writer and social activist L. Ulitskaya mainly focuses on the latter’s books, their origins and unique features and principles. In particular, Konstantinova brings up the fate of screen adaptations of Ulitskaya’s works, including the scripts for the episode A Hundred Buttons [Sto pugovits] in the almanac A Joyful Roundabout [Vesyolaya karusel] (1983) and for the cartoons The Toys’ Secret [Tayna igrushek] (1986) and A Lazy Dress [Lenivoe platie] (1987), which became a sort of springboard for her career in grown-up literature. Also mentioned are films: This Queen of Spades [Eta pikovaya dama] (2003), The Kukotsky Case [Kazus Kukotskogo] (2005), and others. As the interview was conducted remotely due to the pandemic, it also discusses the ways in which the novel coronavirus may change the world (if at all). Ulitskaya also shares her opinion on what a writer should do in these changing times.
E. Konstantinova interviews V. Zubareva, a poet, literary critic, author of over twenty books, including monographs, poems and prose, as well as winner of several literary awards. The two discuss the essence of literature and the different interpretation it receives in academic research, artistic prose, and poetry, respectively. The interview particularly dwells on V. Zubareva’s new translation of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign [ Slovo o polku Igoreve ] and the Tale’s new concept, according to which, as Zubareva suggests, the author and the narrator are different people and the tale’s real hero is Svyatoslav, who dreams of unifying Russian princedoms, rather than Igor. A US resident of over 30 years, Zubareva also comments on the problem of modern Slavic studies abroad and shares updates on her projects, such as Russkoe Bezrubezhye [ Russian Literature Without Borders ], Orlita, and the Gostinaya literary magazine.
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