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Russian literature

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       Rather (over-)dramatically, Owen Matthews asks: Is Russian Literature Dead ? at Foreign Policy.
       The focus turns out to be more on the dismal sales-figures of -- and limited public interest in -- contemporary Russian literature abroad. Of course, Matthews sets the bar rather high, noting, for example, that since The Gulag Archipelago "no Russian writer has enjoyed true breakout American celebrity". Well, yeah ... but given the limited number of foreign authors who achieved that (sure, Roberto Bolaño, Karl Ove Knausgaard ... but there really aren't that many) maybe the measure of success should be slightly more down to earth.
       Matthews does note that quite a bit is at least being translated and published abroad, and even mentions some titles -- but apparently nothing is flying off any shelves. And, he suggests:
For all their virtue, though, modern Russian works may never satisfy the nostalgia that Americans harbor for the crowd-pleasing grandeur of bygone writers' novels.
       Again, maybe not the ideal measure .....

       After quite a stretch in the doldrums, Russian literature and Russian literature in translation seem -- at least to me -- resurgent. I note, for example, that among the titles eligible for this year's Best Translated Book Award (whose longlist will be announced in less than two weeks ...) are surely-longlist-worthy titles such as:        (Whether any (or many, or all of them) actually made the BTBA longlist ... well, you'll just have to wait and see.)
       The fact that there have been no real breakout-authors (well, aside from Boris Akunin) might be vaguely meaningful, but a lot of modern Russian fiction is spreading abroad -- with worthwhile authors including Sorokin, Ulitskaya, Pelevin, Tatyana Tolstaya, Bykov, and Gelasimov regularly getting published in English -- which seems to be the important thing. Regrettably, however, their lack of name-recognition and popularity is also just more evidence that literature (from anywhere) in translation doesn't really sell, except in relatively rare cases.

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