A School for Fools

Last updated
A School for Fools
Author Sasha Sokolov
Original titleШкола для дураков
LanguageRussian
Genre Literary fiction
Publisher Ardis Publishing
Publication date
1976
Publication placeUSSR
Pages169
OCLC 2182126
891.73/3 20
LC Class PG3488.O356 S5 1976

A School for Fools ( tr. Shkola dlia durakov ) is a novel by soviet author Sasha Sokolov. The first draft of the book was completed in 1973 [1] and distributed via samizdat. In 1975 a manuscript was submitted to Ardis Publishing and it was published in the United States in 1976. For the annotation, the publisher, Carl Proffer, used compliments on the work from Vladimir Nabokov's letter. In 1977 Ardis published the English-language translation by Carl Proffer.[ citation needed ]

Contents

In 2022 it was published by Carmel Publishing in Hebrew, translated by Tino (Konstantin) Moshkowitz  [ he ]. [2]

Plot

The novel doesn't have a linear plot, but rather presents events as recalled by the main character. The protagonist, student So-and-so (Russian : ученик Такой-то [a] ), is a student who suffers from dissociative identity disorder and nonlinear time perception, which he believes he inherited from his grandmother. So-and-so is in a constant discussion with his "other self" and has difficulty distinguishing between "yesterday," "today," and "tomorrow."

The protagonist attends a school for special children, where he studies in a class taught by his favorite teacher, geographer Pavel Petrovich Norvegov whom the author also calls Saul Petrovich. He is also in love with another teacher, Veta. The accounts of their lives and the lives of some other minor characters highlight the reality of a repressive Soviet regime.

Following graduation, So-and-So goes on to work in a variety of jobs, from "sharpening pencils" to being a conductor. The narrative comes to an abrupt conclusion as the author runs out of paper.

Reception

in 1996, Wolfgang Kasack described the book as "the most surrealistic work of modern Russian literature." [3]

Mikhail Berg  [ ru ] stressed the importance of the Christian worldview in the work and noted that the outstanding asset of the book is that its language and compositional peculiarities stem directly from the peculiarities of the protagonist. [4]

In the opinion of Mark Lipovetsky A School for Fools directly follows Nabokov's literary tradition and paves the way to the most important and interesting phenomena of the 21st century Russian prose, including works by Alexander Goldstein, Denis Osokin, Nikolay Kononov, and others. [5]

Notes

  1. "Такой-то" is a Russian placeholder name

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Nabokov</span> Russian-American novelist (1899–1977)

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin, was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian (1926–1938) while living in Berlin, where he met his wife. He achieved international acclaim and prominence after moving to the United States, where he began writing in English. Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945 and lived mostly on the East Coast before returning to Europe in 1961, where he settled in Montreux, Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian literature</span>

Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia, its émigrés, and to Russian-language literature. Major contributors to Russian literature, as well as English for instance, are authors of different ethnic origins, including bilingual writers, such as Kyrgyz novelist Chinghiz Aitmatov. At the same time, Russian-language literature does not include works by authors from the Russian Federation who write exclusively or primarily in the native languages of the indigenous non-Russian ethnic groups in Russia, thus the famous Dagestani poet Rasul Gamzatov is omitted.

Russian postmodernism refers to the cultural, artistic, and philosophical condition in Russia since the downfall of the Soviet Union and dialectical materialism. With respect to statements about post-Soviet philosophy or sociology, the term is primarily used by non-Russians to describe the state of economic and political uncertainty they observe since the fall of communism and the way this uncertainty affects Russian identity. 'Postmodernism' is, however, a term often used by Russian critics to describe contemporary Russian art and literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrei Platonov</span> Russian author

Andrei Platonovich Platonov was a Soviet Russian novelist, short story writer, philosopher, playwright, and poet. Although Platonov regarded himself as a communist, his principal works remained unpublished in his lifetime because of their skeptical attitude toward collectivization of agriculture (1929–1940) and other Stalinist policies, as well as for their experimental, avant-garde form infused with existentialism which was not in line with the dominant socialist realism doctrine. His famous works include the novels Chevengur (1928) and The Foundation Pit (1930).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrei Bely</span> Russian poet, writer and critic (1880–1934)

Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev, better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely, was a Russian novelist, Symbolist poet, theorist and literary critic. He was a committed anthroposophist and follower of Rudolf Steiner. His novel Petersburg (1913/1922) was regarded by Vladimir Nabokov as the third-greatest masterpiece of modernist literature. The Andrei Bely Prize, one of the most important prizes in Russian literature, was named after him. His poems were set to music and performed by Russian singer-songwriters.

<i>Woe from Wit</i> Alexander Griboyedovs comedy in verse

Woe from Wit is Alexander Griboyedov's comedy in verse, satirizing the society of post-Napoleonic Moscow, or, as a high official in the play styled it, "a pasquinade on Moscow."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sasha Chorny</span> Russian poet and satirist

Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg, better known as Sasha Chorny or Cherny, was a Russian poet, satirist and children's writer.

Sasha Sokolov is a writer of Russian literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fyodor Sologub</span> Russian symbolist writer (1863–1927)

Fyodor Sologub was a Russian Symbolist poet, novelist, translator, playwright and essayist. He was the first writer to introduce the morbid, pessimistic elements characteristic of European fin de siècle literature and philosophy into Russian prose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aleksey Remizov</span> Russian author

Aleksey Mikhailovich Remizov was a Russian modernist writer whose creative imagination veered to the fantastic and bizarre. Apart from literary works, Remizov was an expert calligrapher who sought to revive this visual art in Russia.

Boris Sokolov, is a historian and a Russian literature researcher. In 1979 he graduated from the department of geography of the Moscow State University, specialising in economic geography. His works have been translated into Japanese, Polish, Latvian and Estonian. He has also translated literary works from various languages.

The following is a bibliography of the works of Mikhail Bulgakov in English and Russian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ardis Publishing</span> Publishing house dedicated in making Russian literature and English literature

Ardis Publishing began in 1971, as the only publishing house outside of Russia dedicated to Russian literature in both English and Russian, Ardis was founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan by husband and wife scholars Carl R. Proffer and Ellendea C. Proffer. The Proffers had two goals for Ardis: one was to publish in Russian the "lost library" of twentieth-century Russian literature which had been censored and removed from Soviet libraries ; the other was to bring translations of contemporary writers working in the Soviet Union to the West. Ardis has published around 400 titles, roughly half in English, half in Russian.

Ellendea Proffer Teasley is an American author, publisher, and translator of Russian literature into English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vasily Botkin</span> Russian essayist, literary, art and music critic, translator and publicist

Vasily Petrovich Botkin was a Russian essayist, literary, art and music critic, translator and publicist.

<i>The Malachite Box</i>

The Malachite Box or The Malachite Casket is a book of fairy tales and folk tales of the Ural region of Russia compiled by Pavel Bazhov and published from 1936 to 1945. It is written in contemporary language and blends elements of everyday life with fantastic characters. It was awarded the Stalin prize in 1942. Bazhov's stories are based on the oral lore of the miners and gold prospectors.

Carl Ray Proffer was an American publisher, scholar, professor, and translator of Russian literature. He was the co-founder of Ardis Publishers, the largest publishing house devoted to Russian literature outside of the Soviet Union, and co-editor of Russian Literature Triquarterly (1971–1991).

Alexander Leonidovich Goldstein — was a Russian writer and essayist. He was awarded the Russian Little Booker Prize, the Anti-Booker prize and the Andrei Bely Prize.

<i>In the Ravine</i> 1900 novella by Anton Chekhov

In the Ravine is a 1900 novella by Anton Chekhov first published in the No.1, January issue of Zhizn magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikhail Elizarov</span> Russian writer (born 1973)

Mikhail Yuryevich Elizarov – is a modern Russian writer and singer-songwriter, laureate of the Russian Booker Prize in 2008 for the novel The Librarian.

References

  1. Волчек, Дмитрий (24 May 2011). "Беседа с Сашей Соколовым" [Conversation with Sasha Sokolov]. Радио Свобода (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-09-05.
  2. בית ספר למטומטמים
  3. Казак, Вольфганг (1996). Лексикон русской литературы XX века[Lexicon of Russian literature of the XX century] (in Russian). M.: РИК «Культура». pp. 392–393. ISBN   5-8334-0019-8.
  4. Berg, Mikhail (1985). "Новый жанр (читатель и писатель)" [New genre (reader and writer)]. А—Я: Литературное издание (in Russian) (1): 6.
  5. Lipovetsky, Mark (2014). ""Ардис" и современная русская литература: тридцать лет спустя" ["Ardis" and modern Russian literature: thirty years later]. Новое литературное обозрение (in Russian) (125). Archived from the original on 23 April 2014.