Writer Sorokin: master of conceptualism

Sorokin Vladimir is a writer whose books provoke heated discussions after the publication. Moreover, disputes arise not only among literary critics claiming to be exclusive, but also among ordinary citizens who may be somewhat discouraged by "Blue Fat" or "Norma". The shock of Sorokin played a cruel joke with him: "Walking Together" held an action for the descent of his books into the toilet. Everything would be very ironic and innocent, if not for one "but": after the action, some Protestants went to the creator's house and offered him to hang prison bars on the windows.

Elements of biography

The formation of Vladimir Sorokin (in 1977 he graduated from the Institute of Oil and Gas) is not associated with literature or with art. True, he never worked as a specialist, but he was engaged in graphics. As a writer Sorokin took place in the 80's, having published abroad the novel "Queue", which aroused the interest of the KGB. He is the author of several novels, a dozen plays, scripts for movies.

Sots Art

In addition to the reputation of enfant terrible, the modern writer Sorokin (quite deservedly, by the way) received the title of master of conceptualism, or rather, of his most shocking and extravagant offshoot - Sots Art. This name was proposed in the first half of the 70s by artists Komar and Melamid.

The main idea of social art is the liberation from power of any discourse that in the time of the Soviet Union had a specific historical, political significance. So it is not by chance that Sorokin, the writer of his books, early and late, built it as a parody of genres that demonstrate the aesthetics of socialist realism.

Demythologization

As Katerina Clark observes, the so-called "Stalinist novel" is based on deeply transformed mythological subjects connected with the initiation rite. The protagonist of the socialist realistic novel subconsciously strives to merge with the collective. Usually in this he helps a wise comrade, which is expressed in various advice, advice. At the end of the initiation, the subject is given a symbol that confirms the success of the rite - a party card or badge.

Writer Sorokin in his works also often unfolds the plot chain, recreating the situation "the master devotes a disciple." A striking example of this is the story "Sergey Andreevich" (1992). The plot is built around the campaign of the teacher and his charges. As a test, students are asked to pass a test of knowledge of the stars (as the embodiment of romantic aspirations). Well, the ritual admission of Sorokin is the scene of eating teachers' excrement wards. As you can see, there is a replacement of the symbolic code with a naturalistic one, and the man's self-abasement in this situation reaches its limit.

Style diversity

Another feature of the poetics of Sorokin's prose is a stylistic leap, a sharp transition from a socialist realistic "smooth" letter to disgusting scenes, or even a simple nonsense. An encyclopedia of such a reception is called a work that first comes to mind the domestic reader who heard the combination "Vladimir Sorokin. Novel". This refers to "Norma", written in 1983. The novel begins in the days of Andropov, when a KGB officer, searching the apartment of a dissident, discovers two manuscripts. One of them is the product of Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago), the other is a novel called Norma. It describes the life of simple "homo sovietkus", which were forced to eat the norm - compressed feces. Failure to obey this demand was fraught with serious consequences for the rebel.

Exposing the conformism of Soviet society, Sorokin conducts a deconstruction of socialist realism, and then of the entire Russian way of life, along with literature. The writer plays various styles, including parodying the manner characteristic of critical realism.

Self-parody?

"Blue Fat" (1999) continues the tradition of all previous works of Sorokin, but this time deconstruction is subjected to modernism. In the novel there are clones of famous writers, among them - A. Platonov and V. Nabokov, whose subcutaneous deposits are blue lard, a valuable substance. The latter falls into the hands of Stalin and Hitler, safely living in an alternative 1954.

By the way, really did not disclose, nor even "catch" modernism Sorokin failed. The most successful is to recognize the stylization of Tolstoy, a figure very far from the twentieth century. Tolstoy's theme of the harmony of man with the world around him sounds new, looks refreshingly unaccustomed to the background of what is happening in the novel. All the rest looks like an unlucky parody (in the case of Platonov) or even incomprehensible than (this refers to the stylization of Nabokov). The reason for such a failure is clear: as a writer Sorokin is very close to modernism, which is so trying to debunk. In fact, the most powerful blow he strikes is not at Osca (that is, Mandelstam) or the ugly old AAA (in the image of which critics with indignation saw Anna Akhmatova), but in himself, on the aesthetics of conceptualism, which allows us to regard the "Blue Lard" as the first Conceptual self-parody.