ODESSA WRITERS OF THE 1920S IN THE JOURNALISM OF N.A. LOGUNOVA (IVANOVA)

In: RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. "Literary Theory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies" Series, Heft 10, S. 52-68

Abstract

The article is the fourth in a series of publications devoted to the biography and journalistic work of N.A. Logunova the Russian emigrant writer. It deals with the first years of her adult life in Odessa, the beginning of her literary career and the activities of the literary circle "The Green Lamp" (Zelenaya lampa). The authors focus on the first steps in the literature of the later famous Soviet writers and journalists V.P. Kataev, I.E. Babel, E.G. Bagritsky, Y.K. Olesha, etc., their first publications in the Odessa periodicals and their public speeches. In addition, it is about, one might say, a particular lifestyle of Odessa writers, formed under the influence of the cultural specifics of their home-city. Logunova tells in detail about the life of Eduard Bagritsky, who loved birds and was indifferent to the conveniences of life, describes the methods of Babel's literary work, who from his youth aspired to the maximum saturation of his prose, literally honing every phrase, removing everything that he considered optional. The article also characterizes methods used by Odessa writers for adaptation to the new – Soviet – conditions of literary life, fundamentally different from the pre-Soviet – political situation.