Andrey Bely Literary Prize: history of creation, development, prospects

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

The Andrei Bely Literary Prize is awarded to poets and prose writers for achievements in the field of Russian literature. It was founded in 1978 by the editors of the magazine "Clock", which was a literary samizdat.

Historical context

The award was established in honor of the outstanding Soviet poet, prose writer and essayist, critic, poet Andrei Bely. Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev - this is the real name of the famous follower of symbolism and modernism in Russian literature - wrote in the poem "First Date" in 1921:

Hidden for twenty years, Blackened for 20 years, I hear the call of the beloved

Today, Trinity Day, -

And under the lace birch, With outstretched good hand, I am washed away by the sighing wave

In undying peace.

Andrey Bely liked to call himself a seismograph, who sensitively caught the first signs of the coming European cultural crisis, revolution, wars and burning forests. Like Bely's seismograph, the prize in his name is alsowas created with the aim of recognizing new movements and currents in contemporary Russian literature.

According to critic and poet Grigory Dashevsky:

Since its inception in 1978, the award has always served as a divisive function, but at different times it has drawn different boundaries. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the award drew a line between official and independent literature and freed independent literature from the underground that threatened it, since any award (even its material equivalent - a sacramental apple, bottle, ruble) is always aimed at the laureate. light, anti underground by definition.

Funny characters

The founders of the award were the editors of the magazine "Chasy", and Boris Ivanov, Arkady Dragomoshchenko, Boris Ostanin and other writers are considered to be the founders.

Initially, the works submitted for the competition were evaluated in three categories: Russian poetry, Russian prose, achievements in the field of humanitarian research.

The award given to the winner was expressed in the following original and symbolic items:

• a bottle of vodka, popularly "white" (the poet's namesake, one might say);
• one ruble to keep the winner from being bored;
• green apple as a symbol of a ripe but young talent.

First winners

Regardless of the comic material background, Andrei Bely's literary award almost immediately became an unusual and noticeable phenomenon in the cultural life of the country. The competition for the award was accompanied by the discovery of new names, especially in the first decade of its development.

For example, among the recipients of the Andrei Bely Prize in Literature during this period were such later well-known authors as "Russian Salinger" - Sasha Sokolov, writer, poet, essayist; postmodernist, creator of the uncensored almanac "Metropol" Andrey Bitov; anticipating conceptualism by Evgenia Kharitonova.

In the poetry nomination, the winners of these years were: lyrical and open-minded poetry by Olga Sedakova; Chuvash avant-garde artist Gennady Aigi; Leningrad poetess, bright representative of informal culture Elena Shvarts.

Among researchers in the field of the humanities, the following were awarded: philosopher and publicist Boris Groys; culturologist, linguist, literary critic Mikhail Epshtein, scientist in the field of ancient Chinese philosophy, doctor of historical sciences Vladimir Malyavin.

New nomination

The whole country experienced the difficult nineties, these years touched upon the Andrey Bely Prize. A forced pause from the beginning of the nineties and a length of almost ten years, it would seem, put an end to the unusual award.

But since 1997, the competition for the award has received a new development and format. There was a fourth nomination, which significantly expanded the circle of participants. She received the title "For Merit to Literature", was considered by the jury regularly and was awarded to the most deserving laureates.

Among the winners of the zero yearswere not only young authors or those who created at that time, but also writers who were actively working in the previous decade.

In these years, the winners of the Andrei Bely Prize (literature) were: the romantic and futurist Viktor Sosnora; philologist and literary historian Mikhail Gasparov; philologist and scientist, academician Vladimir Toporov; specialist in Russian modernism, literary critic Alexander Lavrov; poet-translator of English, Spanish, French, Latin American literature Boris Dubin; writer and playwright Vladimir Sorokin; writer, essayist Alexander Goldstein; historian of philosophy and translator of philosophical literature Natalia Avtonomova; poet, one of the founders of "Moscow conceptualism" Vsevolod Nekrasov and other authors.

Among the winners were young talents: writers and journalists Margarita Meklina, Yaroslav Mogutin; poet and philologist Mikhail Gronas, poet and priest Sergei Kruglov, as well as prominent authors of the past - poet Vasily Filippov, translator and poet Elizaveta Mnatsakanova.

Compromise or raiding

During 2009, disagreements and contradictions appear among the members of the award committee. There is a statement or action of "four" about limiting the powers of the founders to only one nomination "For services to literature".

Boris Ivanov and Boris Ostanin were accused of being out of touch with the real understanding and evaluation of modern literature. The answer to this challenge was a compromise reached with some changes among the members of the committee. Ivanovand Ostanin retained their powers, the composition included poet Mikhail Aizenberg and essayist Alexander Sekatsky.

But in 2014, the jury was dissolved and a new one was formed, in which the winners of the past periods also appeared. It was announced that the Andrei Bely Prize ceased to exist in its former form.

As a result of updates on September 24, 2014, a short list of winners was made public based on the changes made.

Andrei Bely Competition today

The impact of the award in assessing and researching current trends in Russian literature is hard to underestimate. Here is what the literary critic Vadim Leventhal noted:

Traveling to the very frontiers of literature, the heavy development of a gold-bearing vein of a new language, is not paid with rabid fees and, with rare exceptions, is not fraught with glory. All the more honor to the pioneers. All the more respect for the Andrei Bely Award, which invites us to take a closer look at how the gold of the new language sparkles in these texts.

The feature of the award is the search for something new in the new. According to the committee, in particular Dmitry Kuzmin, the process of identifying new laureates is in constant balance between new and bright talented authors and writers with an established reputation.

The award is always modern, it unites people who write in different styles, with different and not always comfortable views of the world, thus uniting not only people, but also eras.

Award nominations push the boundaries. So, for 2018, the results for five groups were summed upAndrei Bely Prizes, laureates of the year:

• poetry - prize-winner Andrei Sen-Senkov with a collection of favorites "Beautiful Poems in Profile";
• prose - winner Pavel Pepperstein with his collection of short stories "Traitor of Hell";
• humanitarian research - Felix Sandalov for the book "Formation. The Story of a Scene";
• literary projects and criticism - the award went to Valery Shubinsky with his essay "Players and Games" about the poetic language of Leningrad poets of the sixties and seventies of the last century;
• translation - winner Sergey Moreino for poetic translations from Latvian, Polish, German;
• services to literature - Estonian poet and translator Jan Kaplinsky was awarded.