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Even though disputes of the "death" of literature in its major forms - the novel and the story - has been on since early 20th century, literature continues to exist giving birth to new names and trends. Or is it an illusion engendered by unwillingness to recognize the end of verbal art? Dmitry Prigov, a poet, prose writer and artist, voiced his position on the issue in a recent interview with "Kultura" newspaper. A poet of Soviet underground, Prigov today is one of the most glaring figures in conceptualism - a school focusing on sense and concept rather than form. Dmitry Prigov is the author of numerous poems and prose works, including the novels "Live in Moscow" and "Only My Japan".
In the opinion of Prigov, the major problems revolve around classical literature, which is not dead but frozen living by the past and finding no response in the present. And classical authors stay frozen too. The reason for that is not deficit of culture they speak and write so much about nowadays but the fact that culture has changed. In the words of Dmitry Prigov, culture is being created anew all the time and each new version is no worse and no better than the previous one - it is just different. In present-day culture the word is no longer the central concept, because contemporary man would rather watch or listen than read. The sequence of events in a film is fairly easy to follow, whereas a long sequence of events in a novel is hard for the contemporary reader to grasp, as people have got used to quickly reported information. The past 5 to 7 years have produced a radically new type of personality, which is the product of social changes and modern urban life. The personality of today is highly mobile, easily switching attention from one thing to another, craving for sensual rather than verbal perception. Earlier personality type changed once a millennium, then -once a centenary, by the early 20th century it changed every generation and now the changes take yet less time. As Prigov says, "there are no long lines in people's lives any more". Hence the new, fragmentary or otherwise known as "clip-like" perception which affects literature - even big novels are often written in separate paragraphs with plenty of plot lines that end most unexpectedly at times.
Dmitry Prigov believes that a major literary element that has changed is the structure. It used to be hierarchical and developed with the main school in which there were "number 1 writers". Now the structure of literature has become categorized. Prigov draws a parallel with music, in which we differentiate between rap, jazz, classical music and rock. Rock and classical musicians are unlikely to compete nowadays since their audiences are different and their performance criteria are different too. In literature like in music there now exist plenty of categories and each has its "top ten". There is intellectual prose, detective stories, fiction - and all of the them stand equal because the "main", realistic style, has now become one of the categories. And even though some archaically-minded authors are still competing with one another in an effort to prove that "the best of best" does exist, this, in the opinion of Dmitry Prigov, is a waste of time because the priority for today is to establish what category of writing you belong to and assess the prospects.
Many find tragic the ongoing collapse of a big cultural layer. People who grew up on the previous concepts might think they are living in an atmosphere of total chaos where literary values are dictated by the market and with book shops inundated with copies of pseudo-literary products. According to Prigov, what seems so horrible is just a difference configuration of culture. It's no good surrendering to time and it's no good paying tribute to time. Literature is not dead - it has but changed its social and cultural status. And we have to accept that, even though we know nothing of what is in store for us at the next stage of cultural progress.


"THE POSSESSED" BY PETERSBURG'S MALY DRAMA THEATRE

The prominent Russian director Lev Dodin is confident that today's life, so full of haste, requires that we take an occasional vacation from it to reflect on the world and our selves. Dodin is thus not afraid of producing plays that last 9 hours. One of such plays is "The Possessed" after the novel by Dostoevsky which is on the repertoire of Dodin-led Maly Drama Theatre in St.Petersburg.
Because of its complexity and polyphony Dostoevsky's prose is rarely produced successfully by theatres. Dodin's production is one of the rare successes that have stood the test of time. This year it turns 15. In Moscow the production was demonstrated as part of the Project "Legendary Productions of 20th Century" carried out by the National Theatrical Art Festival "Golden Mask".
The Petersburg Maly Drama Theatre is famous worldwide: it has been on tour to dozens of countries in Europe, Asia and America and it was the first among the Russian companies to be awarded the honourary "Theatre of Europe" Title. Russian and foreign critics are greatly impressed with the phenomenon of Dodin's company, which is a perfect sample of the Russian model of repertory theatre, theatre-home, united by the artistic will of the leader and living by high artistic principles. This explains the long life of the theatre's productions. Another explanation is the direction of Lev Dodin, who penetrates deeply into the material, which makes the production lifelike and psychologically accurate.
Each character performer in the Maly Drama Theatre, no matter how small his or her role is, knows it inside out. And this knowledge can only come after long and difficult rehearsing. "The Possessed" was under rehearsal for three years. The cast sat at specially purchased desks reading the novel. Dostoevsky's prose required of them not only a profound understanding of the text but also self-knowledge, since the reflections of the author are always addressed to the inner world of the reader.
The laconic title of the novel leaves no possibility for other interpretations: for Dostoevsky the possessed were revolutionaries seized by the idea of destroying man and society. In the late 19th century the author demonstrated the harmful effect of their activities on a small group of radicals operating in a provincial town. For the radicals the target selected justifies any means. They advocate cynicism and amorality and are ready for crime and bloodshed. The production puts special emphasis on meaningless bloodshed and every time a murder is committed the body is elevated above the stage on a platform reminiscent of scales. That is the price of political radicalism. But politics is only an external force driving the characters into action, underlying devilish behaviour is a dispute with God, and such behaviour is in the nature of man, lurking in his desire to assert himself. "Devils continue to fight for power today too, they declare wars, start the centuries with promises of great projects but end up with great collapses", - Lev Dodin says. The reverse side of the tragedy is that by destroying the others you destroy yourself.
"Every new time accentuates points of its own in the philosophy of the play, - Lev Dodin says. - Live thoughts and live feelings have the quality of developing over time, living through time. In the 15 years we've witnessed a great number of phenomenal historical turns. Dostoevsky embraces everything, and there's something he explains and something he gives to understand. We're changing too, and Dostoevsky allows for that too. So life with Dostoevsky is fascinating.
Both in Moscow and Petersburg the audiences are young mostly. And this is particularly encouraging, since Dostoevsky's novel is targeted at the young, so impatient to reconstruct the world there and then. Dostoevsky shows what this kind of thinking results in. Unfortunately, the author's prophesies came true in 20th century Russia and it was not for nothing that the novel was banned under the Soviets. And in the everyday rush of our day there's a danger that Dostoevsky's grave warning will be totally forgotten.
The play by the Maly Drama carries Dostoevsky's words across to us, requires considerable intellectual work of us, but seldom does anyone leave before the final scene.
"Normally no one leaves, because Dostoevsky grabs you into a whirlwind of spiritual adventure that lasts 9 hours, 9 hours with Dostoevsky, - Lev Dodin says. - It means 9 hours of thinking of your own self in earnest. But it is this that matters. And the madder the time, the more important these hours of thinking are".



"GIRLY SONGS" FROM PELAGEA


"If an artist says he isn't bothered with fame, he is cheating. Otherwise he would be sitting home in front of a mirror and singing to it!" The opinion belongs to Pelagea Khanova, a popular young Russian singer, one of the best performers of folk songs. Amazingly but Pelagea - on stage she is known under same name - made no special effort to become so popular now, at 19. Everything came on its own.
Pelagea earned the reputation of a child prodigy at 8 when she was living in her native Novosibirsk. Even now, after she's been living in Moscow for quite a long time, she is still addressed to as "a girl from Siberia". The gift of singing was spotted in her at an early age, she was endowed with both the richness of voice and the ability to sing in any genre.
Pelagea never viewed herself a whiz-kid. "I was devoid of the syndrome, - she said in a radio interview on "Kultura". - Usually the whiz-kids are anti-social: they find it difficult to communicate with people, they understand they are different at an early age because everybody is pointing it out to them. But I've always mixed well with people. None of my relatives told me something like "Do you realize how gifted you are?!" I saw myself an ordinary person and I still do".
However, she is far from ordinary. Because unlike most of her peers, so crazy about music of the young, she has a passion for Russian folk song. Her greatest love is the 1940s favourite Lidia Ruslanova. But the way Pelagea sings and the arrangements and "style mixes" of her group, also "Pelagea", is becoming more and more attractive to the young.
"The Russian folk song - a true one - is wanted at all times, - the singer says. - More and more young people come to our concerts wanting to know more of their roots without feeling any shame for that. And this is really important, the interest is there".
Pelagea has an impressive string of admirers, abroad too. Among them are prominent political leaders, such President Jacques Chirac of France, who described Pelagea as "the Russian Edith Piaf" when she performed to the participants in a meeting of three powers: France, Germany and Russia. Her other admirers include such big names as the Serbian film director and musician Emir Kusturitsa and the Spanish tenor Jose Carreras. Pelagea took part in the recording of an album of the popular British band "Depeche Mode" and has gone with concerts to many countries of Europe. But her interest is directed at both the West and the East.
As she presented her present-day repertoire the singer remarked: "It is mainly made of Russian songs, but we sing Indian folk songs, the songs of northern peoples, even African songs - I sing in different languages. Russian folk songs go well with folk tunes from other countries and even with non-folk elements - from "Pink Floyd", for one, or the music from "Fifth Element". It's really fascinating".
"Russia's national legacy" - said the Russian press of Pelagea when she was still a girl. For many Russians the young singer has now become a symbol of their country. And this no wonder, since her art is saturated with driving energy, flattering sincerity and purely Russian soulfulness.

  05/02/2006

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