Andrei Platonov, Sharmanka [The Hurdy-Gurdy; The Barrel Organ]

Robert Chandler (Queen Mary, University of London)

Ed. by Andrei Rogatchevski, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1975

Places

Russia (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Many Russian writers and critics see Platonov as the greatest Russian prose-writer of the last century. Even in Russia, however, some aspects of his work have received little attention. His six film scripts have barely been studied at all; his eight finished and two unfinished plays are still seldom staged. At least two, however, are masterpieces. Along with the short novel

Kotlovan

[

The Foundation Pit

, 1930],

Sharmanka

[

The Hurdy-Gurdy

The Barrel Organ

, 1930] and

14 Krasnykh izbushek

[

Fourteen Little Red Huts

, 1933] constitute Platonov’s most impassioned, and penetrating, response to Stalin’s assault on the Soviet peasantry. There is something of Brecht’s political urgency in them, and in many respects they anticipate the tragic farce of Samuel Beckett; there is also much that…

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2703 words

Citation: Chandler, Robert. "Sharmanka". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 July 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14450, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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