literature

A journey through popular and ancient literature, from all corners of the globe.
Friday 5th August

Derick Thomson at 90: Gaelic poet in the world

David Hayes, 5 August 2011
Ruaraidh MacThòmais (Derick Thomson) has as poet, scholar, teacher and editor made a profound contribution to Gaelic literature over six decades. The quality and range of his work deserve belated recognition in the context of the culture he has done so much to enlarge, says David Hayes.
Monday 1st August

The geometry and arithmetic of exile: a Russian writer’s view

Oleg Yuriev, 1 August 2011
What happens to a writer when he is no longer surrounded by his own language and reality? Emigres, exiles use a kind of cunning to adapt and continue functioning as writers, but they have to make so many adjustments that some fall silent. Oleg Yuriev examines some famous literary exiles to consider his own position and attitudes to literature in his former country.
Tuesday 24th May

Bob Dylan at 70: revolution in the head, revisited

David Hayes, 24 May 2011
The most influential and original musician of the 1960s generation remains a figure of protean creativity half a century on. The wealth of attention devoted to Bob Dylan as he reaches his 70th birthday is testament to a career of astonishing range. It also reflects the complex legacy of a formative decade which Dylan’s songs and persona helped to define, says David Hayes.
Monday 23rd May

Bob Dylan: a conversation

David Hayes, 23 May 2011
The celebrations of the 70th birthday of the great American musician Bob Dylan include many personal journeys through the archives of memory. Here, David Hayes recalls a thrilling series of concerts Dylan performed in 1981...and a late-night encounter.
Monday 5th July

Voznesensky: elegy for a fashionable poet

Elena Fanailova, 5 July 2010
The poet Andrei Voznesensky died on 1 June. One of the former “big 4” Soviet poets, he managed to hang on to his cult status until the 1990s as that of the outspoken Joseph Brodsky rose ever higher. The poet Elena Fanailova reviews his position in the pantheon of Soviet writers and assesses his contribution to Soviet and Russian poetry.
Friday 4th June

Lev Tolstoy: world literature’s first pop star

Oleg Yuriev, 4 June 2010
Relief at being freed from the deadening Soviet tradition of grandiose literary anniversaries, and socialist realism’s didactic canonization of the Tolstoyan panoramic novel may have something to do with the comparatively muted Russian response to this year’s centenary of Lev Tolstoy’s death. But world literature’s first pop star still shines undimmed
Tuesday 16th March

Arthur Koestler: 20th century man

Masha Karp, 16 March 2010
Arthur Koestler, whose turbulent life charts the intellectual history of the 20thc in the West, has finally found a worthy biographer in Michael Scammell. A youthful communist and survivor of Franco’s prisons, Koestler developed into one of the West’s most persuasive crusaders against communism.
Thursday 25th February

A 'dishonesty of the conscientious': Gordon Brown’s tragedy

Christopher Harvie, 25 February 2010
The literature of human fall and frailty illuminates the political fate of Britain’s prime minister.   
Thursday 18th February

Beirut and contradiction: reading the World Press Photo award

Mai Ghoussoub, 18 February 2010
The writer and Saqi publisher died on 17 February 2007. Her last article - on Beirut - is here. Plus: memory trio, and life journey
Monday 19th October

The posthumous victory of socialist realism

Olga Martynova, 19 October 2009

Gorki reads to Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov

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

Thursday 15th October

Lifewriting: Herta Müller’s journey

Lyn Marven, 15 October 2009
The German-Romanian recipient of the Nobel literature prize eludes readers, media - and translators
Sunday 4th October

Russian Poet’s eye on Londongrad

Tatyana Shcherbina, 4 October 2009
A Russian poet’s eye on returning to Londongrad, where imperial decline is   woven into everyday life
Tuesday 25th August

Far Away from Moscow

Masha Karp, 25 August 2009

Lost and Found in Russia, book cover 

 

 

 

 

 

 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

Wednesday 11th March

The Fear in Lhasa

Woeser, 11 March 2009
"You have a gun. I have a pen." A renowned Tibetan poet smells the air of her submerged land  
Wednesday 25th February

Arthur Miller: depression's fortune

Christopher Bigsby, 25 February 2009
"It could all go away." A dramatist formed by sudden fall speaks anew to a post-crash era
Friday 30th January

John Updike: singing America

James Schiff, 30 January 2009
The death of a writer whose generous yet exacting eye mapped an era is a profound loss
Thursday 22nd January

Susan Sontag: holding herself to account

Angela McRobbie, 22 January 2009
The American writer's early diaries map a burning passion for life, ideas and the desired other
Sunday 10th August

A prayer and a poem

Mahmoud Darwish, 10 August 2008

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

 

 

Thursday 7th August

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: the line within

Roger Scruton, 7 August 2008

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


 

Monday 4th August

A world split apart

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 4 August 2008
The true project of the great Russian writer was spiritual rather than political
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