{"id":4689,"date":"2021-09-24T09:29:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T09:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vocilibereurss.fupress.net\/note-bibliografiche-sulla-ricezione-italiana-dei-racconti-di-kolyma\/"},"modified":"2021-12-19T23:09:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T23:09:50","slug":"note-bibliografiche-sulla-ricezione-italiana-dei-racconti-di-kolyma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vocilibereurss.fupress.net\/en\/note-bibliografiche-sulla-ricezione-italiana-dei-racconti-di-kolyma\/","title":{"rendered":"Bibliographical Notes on the Italian reception of “The Kolyma Stories”"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]\n
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Cover of\u00a0 <\/em>I racconti di Kolyma, Einaudi, 1999.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Title:
\n<\/strong><\/em>Kolymskie rasskazy [The Kolyma Stories]
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Author: <\/strong><\/em>Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982)<\/p>\n

Years:<\/em><\/strong> 1954-1973<\/p>\n

Description:
\n<\/strong><\/em>The Kolyma Stories <\/em>(Kolymskie rasskazy<\/em>), the masterpiece by Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982), was written between 1954 and 1973 and is one of the greatest examples of Russian Gulag literature and 20th<\/sup> century prose. After being rejected by the literary journal \u201cNovyi Mir\u201d and the publishing house Sovetskii pisatel\u2019, the work which contains 145 stories, grouped into six collections in the version edited by Irina Sirotinskaia wasn’t published until the end of the 1980s. It had circulated in the samizdat in four typewritten volumes and fragments had appeared in Russian emigration journals in the West, for example in New York in Roman Gul’s \u201cNovyi zhurnal\u201d (between 1966 and 1976) and in Frankfurt in \u201cPosev<\/a>\u201d (1967) and \u201cGrani<\/a>\u201d (1970). These publications, however, did not respect the stylistic and compositional unity of the original, and Shalamov, at least formally, dissociated himself from them with a letter, to the editorial board of the \u201cLiteraturnaia gazeta\u201d on February 23rd<\/sup>, 1972 in which he condemned \u201cthe abominable practices\u201d of \u201cfilthy fascist magazines\u201d (Sinatti 1992: 259).
\nIn Italy<\/a>, until the seventies, Shalamov was known only to a few specialists, such as Gustaw Herling and Piero Sinatti<\/a>, who was responsible for the first Italian translation of the Kolyma Stories<\/em>, published in 1976 by Savelli which included thirty tales. Acclaimed by Vittorio Strada<\/a> and Herling, the book was criticized by the Italian writer Primo Levi, who did not understand its stylistic originality, denied affinities between the \u201ctotalitarian twins\u201d, Hitler and Stalin, and played down the moral stature of Soviet prisoners compared to those fighting Nazism: \u201cmen like Salamov still deserve our respect, but their stature is inferior to that of their counterparts who fought Hitler’s terror\u201d (\u201cLa Stampa\u201d, 1976).\u00a0 His comments were considered \u201cpretentious aesthetic considerations to delegitimize a book or an uncomfortable author in its entirety\u201d, by Herling, writing twenty years later in \u201cLa Stampa\u201d (1992).
\nLevi\u2019s opinion was typical of the pro-Soviet intellectual left, which did not grant Shalamov’s work its due during the seventies and eighties, despite new editions (again incomplete and unauthorized) which appeared in London (Overseas, 1978), Paris (in French by Maspero from 1980 to 1982 and in Russian by YMCA press, 1982, 1985), and New York (translated by John Glad, Norton, 1980-81): \u201cThere was an almost total silence around Shalamov’s book and the volume was for us one of the most resounding failures\u201d, commented the Savelli editorial director (Battista, \u201cLa Stampa\u201d, November 1992). Interest in the Kolyma Stories <\/em>was kept alive by Strada and Sinatti, by an article written by Pietro Zveteremich after Shalamov\u2019s death in 1982, in \u201cLa nuova rivista europea\u201d, and by Guido Ceronetti: \u201cScialamov, along with Kafka and C\u00e9line, more than any other writer interpreted and expressed the horror of the 20th century\u201d (\u201cLa Stampa\u201d, 1988).
\nIt was only in the nineties that Shalamov’s work was fully accepted in Italy.\u00a0 In the new political climate, after the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, new translations appeared, based on the first Russian version: thirteen tales were published by Sellerio with an introduction by the historian Victor Zaslavsky, a collection of ten previously unpublished tales was released by Theoria and, in 1995, a new version, including fifty-five stories, for Adelphi, promoted by Ceronetti came out: \u201cWe must shout loudly that Shalamov must be read, discovered, and meditated upon, because it is crucial that we encounter him\u201d (\u201cTuttolibri\u201d).
\nIn 1999, Einaudi<\/a> published the world’s first complete translation of the Kolyma Stories<\/em>, translated by Sergio Rapetti, which was finally able to replace \u201cthe meritorious Shalamovian anthologies” that could only represent complete “mosaics with scattered pieces\u201d (Sinatti, \u201cDomenica\u201d). This edition, which is still on sale, was at the centre of a controversy concerning the decision not to publish a preface, written in the form of a dialogue between Herling and Sinatti, which was rejected for\u201csomewhat nebulous\u201d ideological reasons (Malcovati, \u201cL’indice dei Libri del Mese\u201d) and in particular because of Herling’s comparison of Nazi and Soviet concentration camps. It was, however, thanks to the Einaudi edition and the controversy it stirred, that the name of Shalamov became well known in Italy and the stories welcomed, as \u201csplinters of wounded flesh, removed from time: events and images captured in their absolute presence\u201d (Pietro Citati, \u201cRepubblica\u201d).
\nFrom the beginning of the 21st<\/sup> century, new translations of autobiographical works (The Fourth Vologda<\/em>; Vishera. An Antinovel<\/em>, both by Adelphi), essays, excerpts from Shalamov\u2019s memoirs, archival documents, and two poetry collections, marked the success of Shalamov\u2019s major work. The Kolyma Stories<\/em> reached the top of the paperback charts, with high print-runs and several new editions, after an appearance by the Italian writer Roberto Saviano who spoke about the work on the television programme Che Tempo Che Fa<\/em> on November 11th<\/sup> 2009.\u00a0 More recently, the exhibition Varlam \u0160alamov: Vivere o scrivere. Un viaggio documentario <\/em>(Varlam Shalamov: Living or writing. A documentary journey), organized by Literaturhaus Berlin and Memorial Italia visited many Italian cities between 2014 and 2015.
\nAfter decades of \u201cdeafness from the Italian intelligentsia\u201d (Sinatti, \u201cIl Sole 24 Ore\u201d, 2007), Shalamov’s masterpiece has entered the canons of Russian literature studied in Italy and continues to challenge readers who are \u201copen to its authenticity\u201d (Strada, \u201cLa Stampa\u201d, 1992).<\/p>\n

Giovanni Tommaso Bortoletto, Anna De Ponti<\/strong><\/em>
\n[30th June 2021]\n

Translation by Giovanni Tommaso Bortoletto and Anna De Ponti<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n