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186

Under Eastern Eyes

on Alexander Solzhenitsyn & Other Russians

5
terms
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notes

about the political and despairing nature of Russian literature. other authors: Andrei Sinyavsky, Lydia Chukovskaya.

Steiner, G. (2009). Under Eastern Eyes. In Steiner, G. At the New Yorker. New Directions, pp. 186-198

189

So it is with the great Russian writers. Their cries for liberation, their appeals to the drowsy conscience of the West are strident and genuine. But they are not always meant to be heard or anwered in any straightforward guise. Solutions can come only from within, from an inwardness with singular ethnic and visionary dimensions. The Russian poet will hate his censor, he will despise the informers and police hooligans who hound his existence. But he stands toward them in a relationship of anguised necessity, be it that of rage or of compassion. The dangerous conceit that there is a magnetic bond between tormentor and victim is too gross to characterize the Russian spiritual-literary ambience. But it gets nearer than liberal innocence. And it helps explain why the worst fate that can befall a Russian writer is not detention or even eath but exile in the Western limbo of mere survival.

—p.189 by George Steiner 6 years, 10 months ago

So it is with the great Russian writers. Their cries for liberation, their appeals to the drowsy conscience of the West are strident and genuine. But they are not always meant to be heard or anwered in any straightforward guise. Solutions can come only from within, from an inwardness with singular ethnic and visionary dimensions. The Russian poet will hate his censor, he will despise the informers and police hooligans who hound his existence. But he stands toward them in a relationship of anguised necessity, be it that of rage or of compassion. The dangerous conceit that there is a magnetic bond between tormentor and victim is too gross to characterize the Russian spiritual-literary ambience. But it gets nearer than liberal innocence. And it helps explain why the worst fate that can befall a Russian writer is not detention or even eath but exile in the Western limbo of mere survival.

—p.189 by George Steiner 6 years, 10 months ago

(noun) a citizen of a town or city, typically a member of the wealthy bourgeoisie

191

And, to make matters worse, the good burghers are about to stage another one of their tomfool carnivals.

—p.191 by George Steiner
unknown
6 years, 10 months ago

And, to make matters worse, the good burghers are about to stage another one of their tomfool carnivals.

—p.191 by George Steiner
unknown
6 years, 10 months ago

(noun) a usually short sermon / (noun) a lecture or discourse on or of a moral theme / (noun) an inspirational catchphrase or platitude. homiletic: the art of preaching or writing sermons

195

Punctuating these homilies are the literal "voices from the chorus"

—p.195 by George Steiner
confirm
6 years, 10 months ago

Punctuating these homilies are the literal "voices from the chorus"

—p.195 by George Steiner
confirm
6 years, 10 months ago

(noun) a duplicator for making many copies that utilizes a stencil through which ink is pressed

196

In the Soviet Union, Chukovskaya's writings circulate, where at all, by clandestine mimeographs.

—p.196 by George Steiner
confirm
6 years, 10 months ago

In the Soviet Union, Chukovskaya's writings circulate, where at all, by clandestine mimeographs.

—p.196 by George Steiner
confirm
6 years, 10 months ago

translucently clear

196

pellucidly translated

—p.196 by George Steiner
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6 years, 10 months ago

pellucidly translated

—p.196 by George Steiner
confirm
6 years, 10 months ago

literally the “era of Zhdanov,” is the name given to the post-1945 purge conducted in the soviet union against intellectuals, artists, and writers, condemned for their supposed “bourgeois” sympathies

196

The time is February 1949, and the zhdanovshchina--the purge of intellectuals by Stalin's culture hoodul, Andrei Zhdanov--is beginning.

—p.196 by George Steiner
notable
6 years, 10 months ago

The time is February 1949, and the zhdanovshchina--the purge of intellectuals by Stalin's culture hoodul, Andrei Zhdanov--is beginning.

—p.196 by George Steiner
notable
6 years, 10 months ago