A collection of lectures that the author of the famous dystopia “We” delivered to young Soviet writers!
Lectures delivered by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884–1937) to young Soviet writers and poets almost immediately after the revolution were first published only 70 years later, at the Soviet Union’s twilight. In them, the author of the dystopian novel “We” appears from a new angle: as a refined stylist with a sharp literary instinct, seeing the text through to the very reverse side.
A reportage manner is combined here with philosophical conclusions that explain the plot, the storyline, language, imagery, rhythm, and style of the artwork.
The collection also includes two autobiographies by Yevgeny Zamyatin, who so disliked talking about himself, his reflections on literature of a turning era, including the much-noticed essay “I’m Afraid” at the beginning of the last century, and a number of novellas mentioned in the lectures. Familiar to a rather narrow circle of readers, they reveal a slightly different Zamyatin—the writer who peers deep into the ordinary person and follows independently discovered laws of literary craft.