Adventures of Dilettantes by Bulat Okudzhava – Issues and Conflicts Cover Image

Wędrówki dyletantów Bułata Okudżawy – problematyka i konflikty
Adventures of Dilettantes by Bulat Okudzhava – Issues and Conflicts

Author(s): Barbara Kozak
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warmińsko-Mazurskiego w Olsztynie
Keywords: Bulat Okudzhava; historical novel; historical costume; oppression of the individual; writer versus the authority

Summary/Abstract: Historical prose of Bulat Okudzhava is an interesting phenomenon. It belongs tothe literary trend originating in the 20’s of the 20th century, when a rethinking and reappreciationof the past were postulated to plausibly lay out the genealogy of the present.Initially the authors of that period drew on big social and cultural upheavals and theirheroes to explain the complicated relation between the individual and the revolution, andbetween the revolution and the Intelligentsia. In the Adventures of Dilettantes Okudzhavaunambiguously follows those literary trails. He focuses on the momentous changes takingplace in the Russian society in the second half of the 19th century and on the moralpsychologicalatmosphere of that time. One should note that the historicism of Okudzhava isof a very peculiar nature. It consists in considering the conflict between the individual and theauthority not just in the historical perspective, but also in the philosophical, moral and deeplyhuman aspects. In the novel Okudzhava proposes that totalitarian rule has not ever changedacross the eras and tries to prove that hypothesis. In doing that the author is processing andtransforming historical facts. Thus, the classic model of the historical novel is shattered sinceit is too constraining to accommodate elements of fiction, fantasy, dream, surreal visions.Okudzhava uses all of them to expand upon the spirituality of the characters.

  • Issue Year: 1/2012
  • Issue No: XIV
  • Page Range: 155-164
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Polish