Mikhail Zoshchenko
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Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko (Михаил Михайлович Зощенко ; Saint Petersburg, Template:OldStyleDate - July 22, 1958) was a Russian satirist of the Soviet period. He attained particular popularity in the 1920s, but lived in poverty after his denunciation in the Zhdanov decree of 1946.
He developed a simplified deadpan style of writing which simultaneously made him accessible to "the people" and mocked official demands for accessibility: "I write very compactly. My sentences are short. Accessible to the poor." (quoted in Volkov, p.40). Volkov compares this style to the nakedness of the Russian holy fool or yurodivy. This style was much admired by the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who adopted it as a part of his own persona.
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Selected Bibliography (in English Translation)
- A Man Is Not A Flea, trans. Serge Shishkoff, Ann Arbor, 1989.
- Before Sunrise. Trans. Gary Kern, Ann Arbor, 1974.
- Nervous People and Other Satires, ed. Hugh McLean, trans. Maria Gordon and Hugh McLean, London, 1963.
- Scenes from the Bathhouse, trans. Sidney Monas, Ann Arbor, 1962.
- Youth Restored. Trans. Joel Stern, Ann Arbor, 1984.
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Further reading
- Scatton, Linda Hart (1993). Mikhail Zoshchenko: Evolution of a Writer. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521420938.
- Volkov, Solomon (2004). Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator. Knopf. ISBN 0375410821.de:Michail Michailowitsch Soschtschenko