Na Patriarszych, w poszukiwaniu utraconego tramwaju
On Patriarch’s Ponds, in Search of a Lost Tram

Summary/Abstract: Mikhail Bulgakow began his novel The Master and Margarita with an episode in which a tram passes near the Patriarch’s Ponds park in Moscow despite the fact that he was well aware that such a tram line never existed. Then why? Which elements of the story correspond to historical reality, and which are literary fiction or possess special symbolic meaning? How do Russian readers interpret those concurrences and in assorted ways seek the fundamental message of this ambiguous and ambivalent work? And in particular how does a secular interpretation differ from a religious, spiritual one which treats the story either as satanic (since it is an apology of Woland) or as a condemnation of Faustus (ending with a dubious liberation of the protagonists). Are there any other sites in the world perceived by visitors via the prism of a literary presentation?

• Details
• Contents