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Synopsis
Sinyavsky, one of the most significant literary figures of the post-Stalin period, combines his profound knowledge of Russian culture with figures like the Fool, the sectarian Old Believer, the impoverished wanderer, the spell-casting old woman. In bringing these remarkable Russian types to vivid life Sinyavsky also provides a thorough historical account of Russian folk culture from the era before Christianisation to the present. His writing is lively and conversational; his examples are abundant and engaging; his logic is subtle and persuasive. Based on a course Sinyavsky taught at the Sorbonne, Ivan the Fool was inspired by two circumstances of a personal nature. “One,” he says in the Preface, “is the folk belief I encountered first on my many trips to the Russian North, and later – in prison, in camp. The other is the folklore that has always served me as an aesthetic reference point.” Andrei Sinyavsky (1925-1997) was a great satirical novelist and literary scholar, a symbol and a legend for the 1960s generation of Russian intellectuals. His teaching at the Sorbonne gave rise to Ivan the Fool. It was his prosecution for 'anti-Soviet works' which led to the founding of Index on Censorship. His aim “to be truthful with the aid of the absurd and the fantastic”, to quote his own words, links him with Gogol and Dostoyevsky, and with the Russian experi¬mental writers of the 1920s.
...Ivan the Fool is an ambitious and authoritative history of folk culture, and a celebration of its triumph, by an eloquent and enthusiastic scholar. Sinyavsky's absolute faith in the value of the folktale is infectious, and he leaves one with a deep respect for what might easily be mistaken for uninformed superstition. Over and above the provision of a comprehensive study of the subject, he offers an astonishing insight into the national psyche, and this valuable translation means that foreigners can at least have a glimpse of what if means to be Russian.
Rafe McGregor
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