... is
much less
of a specific national and regional context that people from other places may not understand. Fighting against the absolute evil (as in
The Lord of the Rings
) or a hero’s rise (as in
Harry Potter
) are stories that people from any culture can identify themselves with. It doesn’t matter whether a boy grew up in a cubbyhole under the stairs or in the jungle under a banana leaf as anyone can emotionally get in touch with him to a greater or lesser degree.
It should be noted, however,...
... personally became interested in the region even before university, during my final years at school, that is, in the early 1980s. The last generation of Soviet youth were greatly influenced by Western counterculture: English-language music and the Beat literature. This counterculture was largely oriented towards the East, as distinct from the traditional, self-centred Western culture. It turned to the East not so much as a source of creativity but rather as a source of new spiritual horizons — mysticism, philosophy and religion....
... Medvedev’s
Zahhok
, which is set in post-Soviet Tajikistan. It is a very powerful novel with many violent and scary scenes, but it deals with an experience of recent decades that has not yet been reflected in contemporary literature. For fans of counterculture literature, I would recommend Ilya Danishevsky’s
Tenderness for the Dead
, which is a very powerful and unexpected read. And, of course, one of the most important books of last year, Alexei Salnikov’s
The Petrovs In and Around the Flu
. It is a ...
... Russian Language and Literature in Great Britain and on 27 April 2016 we are going to open the Year of the English Language and Literature in Russia. The opening will be marked by the launch of a metro train named after Shakespeare. And the list goes on.... ... April 2016, in spite of the complicated international situation, we shall hold a meeting of the intergovernmental commission on culture, education and youth together with the French Foreign Ministry, after a break that lasted since 2007. Naturally, we are ...
2015 is the Year of Literature in Russia. One of Russia’s most popular writers,
Oleg Roy
, shares his insights on contemporary literature, the state of libraries and promoting a positive image of Russia abroad through literature and cinema.
Russia has always been famous ...
