Cover Osteuropa 1-2/2018

In Osteuropa 1-2/2018

The scholar of human existence
The life and work of Svetlana Alexievich

Karla Hielscher


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

Svetlana Alexievich has developed a new literary genre. Out of the voices of countless dialogue partners, she composes a choir which expresses the experiences of an entire epoch through language. In her cycle on the history of Soviet civilisation, which begins with the Second World War and ends amid the rubble of the Soviet empire, the focus is not on historical facts, but on the sentiments and feelings of the people involved. In her work, Alexievich tackles the basic issues of human life and the eternal enigma of life and death.

(Osteuropa 1-2/2018, pp. 5–26)