Joke, satire, irony and deeper meaning
Platonov’s difficult reception in and beyond Russia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Andrei Platonov’s works are of a world class literary standard. However, neither in Russia nor in the West has he been widely appreciated. The Soviet literary world had difficulty accepting Platonov’s critical stance. On Russia’s book market of the 1990s, Platonov had to compete with Bulgakov, Nabokov and Pasternak. The first attempts to launch Platonov as an author in the German, French and English-speaking countries during the 1970s also failed.
(Osteuropa 8-10/2016, pp. 409–423)