literature: all articles

Anatoly Yar-Kravchenko: Maxim Gorki reads his fairy tale "A girl and death" to Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov on 11.11.1931 (painted in 1949)

Socialist realism, the old Soviet literary canon, has come to dominate the literary scene once more, laments the distinguished literary critic, Olga Martynova

The German-Romanian recipient of the Nobel literature prize eludes readers, media - and translators

A Russian poet’s eye on returning to Londongrad, where imperial decline is   woven into everyday life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 17 years ago Susan Richards embarked on her journey deep into provincial Russia.  What she finds is often surprising, sometimes hilarious, sometimes depressing, but her friendships enable her to see much more than foreigners ordinarily would, says Masha Karp

"You have a gun. I have a pen." A renowned Tibetan poet smells the air of her submerged land  

"It could all go away." A dramatist formed by sudden fall speaks anew to a post-crash era

The writer and Saqi publisher died on 17 February 2007. Her last article - on Beirut - is here. Plus: memory trio, and life journey

The death of a writer whose generous yet exacting eye mapped an era is a profound loss

The American writer's early diaries map a burning passion for life, ideas and the desired other

"Everything ends in one minute." Palestine's national poet is dead, his words survive and burn (archive)

 

 

The prophetic message of Alexander Solzhenitsyn transcends the circumstances that gave rise to it

 

Plus: Memorial's tribute, Evgeny Morozov's cyber-war, and the Harvard address

 

The true project of the great Russian writer was spiritual rather than political

A lively London market offers a fresh view of the old story of England as a "heritage in danger"

A passionate, lyrical voice that embraced négritude, Marxism and surrealism is stilled

The shift from polymath to expert has diminished, but not withered, the garden of knowledge

France's pioneering feminist still shines on her centenary (archive)

A great English artist born 250 years ago fused empathy, anger and love 

Pippi Longstocking's creator wrote for children and fought for justice

 

A combative literary persona was forged in the symbolism of the ring

The Nobel literature award honours an eternal outsider