Contemporary Russian Literature

[Alina Israeli]

>Hanya Krill wrote:
>
>> At 04:09 PM 11/5/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> >-Very true! Ethnical classification would also exclude such Russian
>writers
>> >and poets as Bulat Okudzhava, Fasil' Iskander, Chingiz Aitmatov, Bakhyt
>> >Kenzheev -- and many others.
>> >Vlentina Zaitseva
>>
>> Are these "Russian writers and poets" or are they "writers and poets who
>> wrote in Russian?"  Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian writer/poet/artist, also
>> wrote many works in the Russian language.

Look at it from the opposite point of view: is Conrad a Polish writer or an
English one, is Makine who got two French literary prizes a French writer
or a Russian one? Was Conrad ever taught or is he going to be taught in a
Polish literature course?

Where would you place the English-speaking, English-writing Nabokov?

And what would you do with novels written in two languages, not in
macaronic style à la Madame Kourdiukoff, but chapter by chapter English vs.
French as it happens in some Canadian literature?

Let me remind you that the film "Europa, Europa" was not nominated for
Academy Awards (Oscars) (which stirred some controversy) because it was not
A foreign language film, but a film in many languages.

AI

**************************************************************
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University                phone:  (202) 885-2387
4400 Mass. Ave., NW                     fax:    (202) 885-1076
Washington, DC 20016