Opera slavica (Dec 2016)
Pasternak through French eyes
Abstract
The paper explores the reception of Boris Pasternak, Russian author and Nobel Prize winner for Literature (1958), in France. Though its primary focus is to appraise the monograph Un poète dans son temps: Boris Pasternak (2015) by the French Slavonic scholar Michel Aucouturier, which presents a detailed survey of the key moments in his personal and creative life, casting light on the philosophical and artistic sources of his poetics, set in the historical context of East Central European avant-garde. Apart from pursuing popularisational and scholarly purposes, Aucouturier's publication reflects his long-running pursuits involving editing sources and documents and a thorough knowledge of West European Slavonic and Russian Slavonic literatures; last but not least, particular attention is given to his life experience which objectified his encounter with Pasternak and, above all, his French translations of Pasternak's prose and poetry. Aucouturier, for whom the works of the great Russian author became lifelong preoccupation for more than half a century, was fascinated by Pasternak's inimitable lyrical imagination, by the permeation of rational intelect and sensory imagination.
