„Compromise” and „Moscow – Petushki”. An exercise of comparative ethylography
The present text represents a comparison between the works of two major contemporary Russian writers, Serghei Dovlatov and Venedikt Erofeev. Besides their numerous biographical resemblances (they were both expelled from the university because of their polemical and contemptuous attitude, drawn from a visceral anti-Communism, they were consequently forced to experience an extremely marginal and precarious life, they both died in 1990, etc.), they also shared another common self-destructive passion, which marked their literature to the very core – that is to say, their love-and-hate relationship with alcohol. The text aims at a schematic explanation of this passion’s biographical causes and literary effects.
Keywords: contemporary Russian literature, anti-Communist Russian writers, Serghei Dovlatov, Venedikt Erofeev, alcoholic suicide
1. Serghei Dovlatov, Compromisul, Bucureşti, Humanitas, 2009.
2. Venedikt Erofeev, Moscova – Petuşki, Chişinău, Cartier, 2004.
3. Matei Călinescu, Universitatea, viaţa literară, universitatea, înMatei Călinescu, Ion Vianu, Amintiri în dialog, Iaşi, Polirom,1998, p. 205.
4. Cititorul interesat poate consulta arhiva revistei 22 – aiciau fost publicate, începând cu numărul 947 din 29 aprilie 2008 şi până în numărul 954 din 17 iunie, cele opt părţi ale
excelentului studiu al lui Andrei Oişteanu.
5. v. Nadejda Mandelştam, Fără speranţă. Memorii. Cartea întâi, Iaşi, Polirom, 2003; Nadejda Mandelştam, Speranţă abandonată. Memorii. Cartea a doua, Iaşi, Polirom, 2005.
