A year passes, and, according to the impatient world, a decade passes . What trends appeared in the literature, what did it manage to explain to us about the world and about itself? The editors of Shelf, helping themselves with strong drinks (New Year!), remember the most important thing - in prose, poetry, theater, non-fiction .
The Possessed is a novel that some understand as a political pamphlet, others as a terrible and come true prophecy about the Russian revolution . Some understand it as a space where the writer’s favorite metaphysical ideas collide. The editors of Polk decided to discuss Dostoevsky's novel on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth .
Viktor Pelevin and Vladimir Sorokin are one of the stable couples, "eternal companions" of Russian literature . The editors of "Shelf" discussed "The Invincible Sun" and "Russian Folk Proverbs and Sayings" Sorokin's folklore .
Polk podcast revisits how Russian literature speaks of idleness . From the blissful bliss of romantic poets to the pathological inactivity of Oblomov . From moralizing verses of Marshak and Barto to the real trial of the "parasite" Brodsky .
Yuri Saprykin and the editors of the Polka project are discussing one of the main Russian books . "A Hero of Our Time" as a colonial novel, can Pechorin be called a perverse narcissist, toxic relationships in the time of Lermontov .
"Shelf" discusses the work of literary memory: how the authors of memoirs preserve the details of literary life and what it means to "lie like an eyewitness" in relation to texts about Akhmatova and Mandelstam, Mayakovsky and Yesenin . How do some memoirists create myths about great writers, while others debunk these myths?
The editors of the Polka project discuss one of the main ethical conflicts in Russian literature (and life in general) How writers of the 19th century learned to recognize the feelings of a woman and figured out which is stronger - duty or love, attraction or morality.
To the 120th anniversary of Andrei Platonov, Polk editors Varvara Babitskaya, Lev Oborin, Polina Ryzhova and Yuri Saprykin are discussing . Why do his books look more modern today than ever? Is he a Soviet writer? And what is the Soviet project for him? What is the peculiarity and strangeness of his language?
This year, archives related to the Nobel Prize of Alexander Solzhenitsyn were opened . According to the charter of the prize, detailed information about each of its awards has not been available for 50 years . In the near future, the "Shelf" is expected to feature material on the history of the Nobel 1970 .
The editors of "Shelf" decided to discuss how Russian literature speaks of love, and use the ancient classification for this: storge, eros, philia, agape . In this issue we are talking about storga, family love: why do many childhood memories leave a bright impression, despite the difficult details .