Nagroda literacka Jasna Polana : ideologia, estetyka, poetyka

Abstract

The present thesis aims to analyze one of the most prestigious Russian literary prizes – the Yasnaya Polyana Book Award. The author of the thesis is primarily interested in the ideological, aesthetical and poetical dimensions of the award. The first chapter provides a theoretical description of the Yasnaya Polyana Book Award, focusing on the role such distinction has in shaping the literary canon through acts of ‘consecration’ – defined as raising the status of a text of culture (in this case – a literary work) to that of a work of art. Moreover, literary prizes function as extremely important factors for establishing bonds within literary circles by creating associations between writers who share the same or similar views on literature. Another discussed issue concerns the role of literary awards in shaping the book market, i.e. the relationship between the field of literature and the broadly understood field of economics. The author of the dissertation claims that the act of ‘consecration’ of a work of art through the verdict of the jury (or in other words – through the mechanism of reference to authority) may raise the status of that work in the reader’s eyes, simultaneously encouraging them to buy the book. As the author claims, to a large extent the Yasnaya Polyana Book Award aims to become one of the most important factors shaping the field of Russian literature. Finally, a brief outline of the history of Russian literary awards, as well as their place in contemporary Russian culture, expands upon the considerations included within this chapter. Chapter two consititutes an attempt to recreate the ideological and aesthetic views of the jury members. Following Janusz Sławiński and Derek Attridge’s considerations about the inability to detach a critical act, such as the jury's verdict in the case of the literary award, the author argues that there exists a relatively compact system of views shared by the members of the Yasnaya Polyana committee. The research material used in this part of the analysis consists of journalistic speeches, essays and other texts written by the Yasnaya Polyana jurors. The analysis allows to identify, with relative precision, the ideological and aesthetic context of the the Yasnaya Polyana – pochvennichestvo and its artistic emanation, Village Prose. The main point of reference for the Village Prose ideology is nation-soil (почва), its spiritual condition and transformations within that group. Some of the more important aspects of the ideology of pochvennichestvo (and of Village Prose) relate to the themes of binary oppositions, such as: new-old, tradition-modernity, country-city, past-future, revolution-evolution. Chapter three is devoted to the role the Yasnaya Polyana Book Award has in the process of shaping the new Russian identity. It would involve extending the concept of the nation-soil to all the inhabitants of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity, nationality or religion. In his reflections, the author of this thesis focuses on the Russian national character, the substant features of the Russian nation, and the attitude towards ‘their own’ and ‘outsiders.’ Referencing the literature on the subject, the author denies the existence of the abovementioned factors and indicates that socio-cultural identity is a construct largely imposed on an individual by social institutions (family, school, culture, state). According to him, Yasnaya Polyana is an institution of cultural life and it constitutes a ‘channel of nationalization’ (as used by Mikhail Timofeev) of new meanings, aimed at creating a common Russian identity. The process of building a new identity is linked with the official policy of the Russian state. The author proposes to call the ideology represented by Jasna Polana ‘the new pochvennichestvo’ and uses the framework proposed by Mikhail Timofeev - time, space, language, system of values, ethnic, religious and cultural communities, and attitude towards other nations – as its core indicators. Consequently, the author performs an initial analysis of the works awarded by Yasnaya Polyana according to these categories, and as a result, he confirmes the assumption of the identity-consituting aspect of Yasnaya Polyana. Chapter four focuses on the poetics and aesthetics of the works associated with Yasnaya Polyana. The first part of the chapter explores similiarities in conventions and genres of the selected works, leading to the conclusion that the discussed texts share their most important characteristic: they all represent conscious realism, as defined by Damian Grant. The following part of the chapter is devoted to the analysis of said works through the lense of common themes of Village Prose, as listed by Katherine Parthé (including: rural enviornment, nature, home, ‘little homeland’, time, language). The detailed analysis shows that the prize-winning texts cannot, some exceptions aside, be treated as representative of Village Prose, due to major differences between the poetics of particular authors. In fact, the most important binding factor between the texts, according to the author of the dissertation, is that they show diversity of the nation-soil, both in diachronic and synchronic cross-section. The final part of the dissertation (Conclusions) contains a summary of all the abovementioned considerations, as presented in the corresponding parts of the thesis. The bibliography includes an alphabetical list of references, divided into primary, theoretical, and secondary sources.