The history of Russian literature of the 19th and the early 20th centuries according to Ivan Bunin (a page from the unpublished notebook)

Abstract

The article is a detailed commentary to a page from Ivan Bunin’s unpublished notebook (1944). The page lists the names of writers, poets, critics and publishers from the time of Bunin’s youth. According to the author of the article, this listing gives much more objective information about the influences on Bunin’s own early work recognized by himself than all autobiographical notes and memoirs published by the writer. The list of prose writers is dominated by Narodnik authors (he met many of them thanks to his brother, Yuly Bunin) and the writers close to them, who were considered “progressive”. In the list of poets, the authors of “pure art” are connected with the poets of “civil sorrow”, members of the Surikov circle and some senior Symbolists. The list of critics and publishers brings us back to populism. The article concludes that the list presents an attempt of an objective literary autobiography, in contrast to such official autobiographical texts as “Memoirs”.

Keywords

• ivan bunin
• narodnik authors
• symbolism
• russian modernism
• literary influence