/lit/ - Literature

Interesting to see Solzhenitsyn there, given how he was treated.

So...the same exact list of authors other nationalities see as the most significant of Russia's authors.

Thanks for sharing, OP.

>no goncharov
>hurr durr muh sports don't in the bed

>>4603794
>given how he was treated.
He was published in a time when people were being sent to the kinds of gulags he described for far less seditious writing? Poor Solzhenitsyn.

Plus, the Soviet Union dissolved 20 years ago. And despite living in the West for awhile, he was a Russian nationalist through and through

Do Western countries do this?

I remember some British event (think it was Olympics), where they put on a bunch of pop music and had James Bond and the Queen skydive from a plane, or something.

I'd imagine that literature and other unpopular but high brow things are only ever celebrated by third world countries, where cultured autocrats have considerable clout.

rip pasternak

>>4603895
>but high brow things are only ever celebrated by third world countries
lol no. they celebrate their national stereotypes.

>>4603759
no, it's not

those are the most popular names in the west, and it is for that reason that they were chosen for the closing ceremony

all of those authors, apart from brodsky (whom none of you are familiar with), are high school level material in russia

stop saying bullshit you don't know

>>4603909
You're thinking South/Central Americans?

I know that North Korea, China, and the old USSR all promote or promoted classical arts. Sadam Hussein seemed like the type of guy who'd read Dostoevsky.

>no Bely
>no Grossman
>no Babel
>no Fet
>no Sologub
>no Kharms
>no Goncharov

plen as frick

>>4603926
everyone is familiar with Brodsky u fucking turd

>>4603926

So whom do Russians regard as the most significant Russian authors?

>>4603962


>no Kharms

rip in peace iranguy

>>4603930
>Sadam Hussein seemed like the type of guy who'd read Dostoevsky
Really? Dosto seems way too inward-looking for Hussein.

>>4603970
those mentioned @ OP

>>4603970
Pushkin is the top dog for sure

>>4603895
Russia, despite all its shortcomings, it hardly a third-world country.
I read that during the Soviet era, despite the misery and harsh condition of living, one major improvement from the feudal system is that people had more time and incentive to read.So literature got embedded more profoundly in collective popular consciousness.

>>4603791
Except the West, particularly Americans, seem to have a peculiar focus on Tolstoy and Dostoievsky. A Russian would perhaps be offended to see how small Pushkin is in the West, compared to those two.

>>4603930
>Sadam Hussein seemed like the type of guy who'd read Dostoevsky.

Really? Dostoevsky was (when we was writing his good stuff anyway) a right-wing Christian nut. You would need to have some serious reading comprehension problems to miss the Christianity oozing out of his books.

>>4603970
The one everyone seems to agree on is Pushkin, he's like Shakespeare to Russians, except better.

>>4604026
>Russia, despite all its shortcomings, it hardly a third-world country.

Considering that 'third-world country' means a country that didn't take sides during the cold war, it would be pretty tough to argue it was.

>>4604037
If you use it in the Cold War sens it sure is contradictory. But even in the more contemporary sense of "developing/poor country" it doesn't fit.

>>4604079
Well Russia is maintaining first world status because of it's natural resources. In terms of corruption it's third world, and East of the Urals it's third world, too.

But this is pointless.

>Gogol
I wonder how many Russians realize he was you-know-what.

>>4604420

They couldn't very well leave him out, any moreso than Tchaikovsky.

>>4604420
Arguably.

Homosexuality also hasn't stopped Russians from appreciating artists. Tchaikovsky is a well known homosexual and still enjoys widespread popularity even among more low-brow Russians.

At first I was thinking an equivalent segment in America would be writers like Stephen King. But I think America would come out just fine (e.g., Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Mark Twain, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut).

>>4604557
>just fine
>Vonnegut
>no Pinecone

>mfw I've only read a few russians
>dostoevsky bretty gud
>tolstoy meh

where should one start with pushkin? I like the bleakness that seems to come into play with whatever russian lit I find

>>4604624
I'd like to know where to start with Pushkin, too. If he truly is "Russia's Shakespeare," he's got to be good reading.

>>4604460

They deny the fact that anyone significant has been gay.

>>4604643
looked up some of his works
>an aristocrat does this
>an aristocrat does that
>falls in love
>woman doesn't love him

eugh god, I'll read Russians as long as it's not aristocrat central.. so fucking boring.

>>4604028
>right-wing
you've listening to /pol/ to much
>christian
yes
>nut
probably

>>4604557
>no walt whitman
>no jd salinger
>no harper lee
>no truman capote

>>4604420
>>4604458
just like how the great and glorious and totally-not-corrupt-dictator putin recognised the talents of elton john 'despite' his orientation

>>4604420

I's got me major literary hard-on for Gogol, I've read just about everything I could get my hands on about the little bird-nosed fella', and there's no real evidence that he was homosexual. If his letters are any evidence (probably not, he's an out-and-out liar), he's more likely a horribly closeted heterosexual. Of course, all the fancying of women he talks about in his earlier letters could just be a cover. I think what really knocks him into the uncomfortable heterosexual camp is his treatment of women as characters, he's literally unable to describe them at times. But either way, there's no evidence that Gogol has a single sexual encounter in his lifetime.

>>4604624
>>4604643

For the English reader (or so I'm told, my Russian is crap), Pushkin's prose is where it's at, which is unfortunate because his poetry is apparently beyond top tier. He's an unabashed romantic though, so don't expect tales of misery like the later Russian writers. Start with the Queen of Spades I'd say, and if you dig it go onto The Tales Ivan Petrovich Belkin, The Captain's Daughter, and The Little Tragedies. They're all brilliant, even in translation.

Why are Russian last names always so fucking long?

>>4604652
>Dostoevsky not right-wing

Have you read ANY of his journalistic work? He wears that shit proud. He was probably the most famous proponent of Pochvennichestvo, and even used the unveiling of Pushkin's statue to further his politics.

>>4604652
apart from walt whitman all those you posted are pleb shite

>>4604026
I can understand why Pushkin is overlooked outside of Russia. I've read him in Russian but, like most poetry, it doesn't translate without huge loss. Because non-Russian reading people can't read it in its pure form, they tend to forget it exists.

>>4604460
lol its gogol wasnt gay. the poster probably meant to say he was ukrainian. therefore, you cant consider gogol and russian writer.

>>4605068
Ukraine was part of Russia when he was around.

>>4605068
They also used music composed by Kachaturian, who was Armenian, so there.

> No Mikhail Sholokhov
How/What?

>>4605068
Traditionally it is seen that non-Cossack Ukrainian identity was born in the middle of 19th century - before it, Ukrainians were Russians settlers living in Ukraine and/or Cossacks. Gogol fits the former group.

>>4604557

The literature homage at the 2024 Paris Olympics will feature the following authors: François Rabelais, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Marquis de Sade, Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, Jules Verne, Guy de Maupassant, André Gide, Marcel Proust, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, and Molière

>>4605712
>no Dumas

>>4603895
Russian lit is a high point of the country culturally

>>4604711
Russian words are all very long. A casual greeting is "Priviet". It's just a language with excess syllables

>>4605712
>no Camus

>>4603895
All the wogs who currently occupy Britain resent any mention of the great white men who built the country.

>>4605739

6/10

>>4605712
>no Rome

>>4605287
It`s bullshit, but Gogol could be called russian writer.

>>4603895
The British Olympics spent more time celebrating JK Rowling than Shakespeare. Truly a dying nation.

>>4603759
Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva are the only ones I'm familiar with, and they seem like token female inclusions anyway.

>>4605752

They had someone reciting lengthy passages from The Tempest during the closing ceremonies, though. But they totally underserved Brit Lit, all told.

Uh, russkie is here, ask your questions.
>>4605283
Though two of his works are in high school program and practically every home library has "And Quiet Flows the Don" (sounds really stupid in English btw) as a doorstopper or telly rack, he isn't extremly popular this days. But he was in soviet union tho.

>>4605753

You're not familiar with anyone else in OP?

>>4604624
If you want something bleak, read some of Chekhov's short stories. Pic related is a good collection.

Is Lermontov not a big deal in Russia? I'm halfway through A Hero Of Our Time at the moment, and the introduction was all about how influential and popular he was

>>4605769
If you could provide an answer for >>4603970, that would be great. Пожалуйста и спасибо

>>4605780
When I was in school (circa 14-15 years old) we went through practically all of his works, escpecially A Hero Of Our Time which is my favorite book by him btw. The deal is, he didn't wrote that much in the first place. And he was only influential in poetry. If you are intrested I suggest to read Nabokov's lecture on Lermontov.
>>4605782
Like it's already been said, the list mentioned in op-post is true. Some authors are missing indeed but when it comes to choosing most significant the list is just.

ask mercy for mistakes

>>4605802

Also, who are the most significant Russian authors alive and writing today? I'm only barely familiar with Pelevin.

I could definitely see Mandelshtam's portrait there, OP

All of what was happening there reminded me of cosplay events, honestly.

>>4605875
To begin with, russian literature tradition now is rather dim.
I'm not really into modern russian literature, but I guess Pelevin, Limonov, Prilepin and Sorokov are the most popular now. At least on russian /lit/. They are rather decent writers. Pelevin is even considered by some as a now-living classic, but I doubt it. Also I heard he is even included in high-school program at some schools.

>>4605885

The one on the left? Surely that's Pushkin.

>who Russians tend to see
please. putin's little family orgy of corruption down in sochi has nothing to do whatsoever with russians.
>>4603794
>Interesting to see Solzhenitsyn there, given how he was treated.
>how he was treated.
with all due respect to his suffering solzhenytsin went from anticommunism to antisemitism and to retarded bigotry praising putin for whatever he does. this is why you see him and not varlam shalamov or yuz aleshkovskiy.

>>4605906
Solzy looks like he's exactly what I'd expect an old Russian author to look like.

>>4605885
>>4605894

Oh, there were more authors pictured than those listed in OP. There's Mandelstam right there with some friends. Maybe OP's list was the authors being portrayed live during the segment.

>>4605906
> this is why you see him and not varlam shalamov or yuz aleshkovskiy.
Not a fan of his oeuvre, but Solzhenitsyn is on another level. He is mostly praised for him being a dissident and a critic of communist regime but not as a writer.

>>4605914
>right there
'Right here', that is.

>>4605916
There is a whole generation of writers who have been to the camps. HE is praised for being a bigot AND a dissident AND a critic of the communist regime.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/mark-steel/mark-steel-a-reactionary-called-solzhenitsyn-886115.html

>>4605928
>There is a whole generation of writers who have been to the camps.
But none of them did it so damn good.
What I'm trying to say that back in russia when you say 'Gulag' you instantly think of Solzhenytsyn. He shed a ton of light on this topic and he was popular long before Putin came to power.
Of course that doesn't neglect his "bigotry", but that is definatly not the reason of his praise.

>>4605941
I dare you! go to 2-ch.so/bo and say "Gulag".

>>4605941
I'm afraid to be kicked in ebasos.
But Solzhenytstyn will be on their minds while they'll be kicking me for sure.

>>4606005
--->>4605998

>>4605885
>>4605914
>>4605918
Sure thought I saw Daniil Kharms pictured at some point.

russian bursts into the thread
>>4603970
>So whom do Russians regard as the most significant Russian authors?
(except those listed in OP-post)

classic tier:
Lermontov ("greatest poet #2" + A Hero of Our Time)
Saltykov-Shchedrin (butthurt-maker for russian patriots)
Goncharov (Oblomov)
Griboyedov (Woe from Wit)

Silver age tier:
Andrei Bely
Fyodor Sologoub

Early Soviet period:
Ilf and Petrov
Maxim Gorky
Platonov
Zamyatin
Kharms

"Sixtiers":
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Nowdays "cult writers":
Pelevin
Sorokin

Такие дела.

>>4605769
I want to learn Russian, can you help me?

>>4606195

Большое спасибо. Surprised Gorky in particular wasn't mentioned before now.

>>4606195
I forget his name, Mikalov, I think, but what about the author of Margarita?

>>4606876
>what about the author of Margarita?
Bulgakov was mentioned by OP. >>4606195 acknowledged that list.

>tfw will never write world classic in front of thousands of cheering fans