WHY DIDN’T SOLZHENITSYN AND SHALAMOV WRITE THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO TOGETHER? / 1964 marks the end of the so-called Thaw ; during this time, Solzhenitsyn explained to Shalamov his intention to write a great fresco of the Camps – which will be The Gulag Archipelago – and invited him to become a co-author. He planed this book as a collective work with a polyphonic dimension, based on 227 testimonies collected and masterminded by himself. This paper endeavours, firstly, to understand the reason for Shalamov’s refusal. Secondly, it analyses both the individual and collective dimensions, respectively, of Solzhenitsyn’s and Shalamov’s works. Finally it considers how both writers built their own place within Soviet and Russian literary history.
Key words : great fresco of the Camps ; collective work; polyphonic dimension ; Thaw
BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Brodsky, Joseph, ”The Geography of Evil, Review of From Under the Ruble by A. Solzenicyn et al ; The Gulag Archipelago III, IV by A. Solzenicyn ; On Socialist Democrasy by R. Medvedev”, Partisan Review. Vol. 44. n° 4. Winter 1977. P. 637–645. Cité d’après le texte russe, « Gueografia zla », Literatournoïé obozrenié, 1999, p. 4-8, version électronique http://www.solzhenitsyn.ru/o_tvorchestve/articles/works/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=667
Chalamov, Varlam, Tout ou rien, traduit du russe par Christiane Loré, Lagrasse, Verdier, 1993.
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Soljenitsyne, Alexandre, L’Archipel du Goulag, traduit du russe par Geneviève Johannet, José Johannet, Jacqueline Lafond, René Marichal, Serge Oswald, Nikita Struve, avec la collaboration de Michel Heller, Paris, le Seuil, 1974 (t. 1 et 2) – 1976 (t. 3).
Soljenitsyne, Alexandre, « Avec Varlam Chalamov », Moscou, Novy Mir n° 4, 1999, p. 166-168, cité d’après la version électronique http://shalamov.ru/memory/117/1.html (en russe), consulté le 23/06/2016.