Complete article: http://www.signandsight.com/features/1251.html

2007-03-28

The source we drink from

The rediscovery of the absurd – the Oberiuts are the liveliest of the classic Russian writers.

The love for literature never blossoms as much as in times when literature is officially supressed. Anyone who hasn't experienced this cannot really imagine how precious illegal copies of works by Vladimir Naboko v, Osip Mandelstam, Joseph Brodsky or Daniil Kharms were in the late Soviet era. Today the books of these once forbidden and suppressed authors are now shelved along with the classics. They are read, interpreted correctly or incorrectly, and perhaps not even topical any more. That's only to be expected. But interest in one group of poets from the first half of the 20th century has remained undiminished.

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The article originally appeared in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on February 17, 2007.

Olga Martynova, born in 1962 in Dudinka (Siberia), grew up in Leningrad. She lives and works as poet and literary critic in Frankfurt am Main. Her book " Rom liegt irgendwo in Russland. Zwei russische Dichterinnen im lyrischen Dialog über Rom" (Rome lies somewhere in Russia. Two Russian poets in a literary dialogue about Rome, written together with Jelena Schwarz) was put out by Per Procura publishers.

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.