{"id":19038,"date":"2020-03-07T19:10:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T18:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/?p=19038"},"modified":"2020-03-07T19:10:04","modified_gmt":"2020-03-07T18:10:04","slug":"a-school-for-fools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/a-school-for-fools\/","title":{"rendered":"A School for Fools"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUTHOR<\/strong>:
\nSasha Sokolov (1943- )<\/p>\n

WRITTEN IN<\/strong>:
\n1972-1973<\/p>\n

FIRST PUBLISHED<\/strong> (in Russian)<\/strong>:
\n<\/strong>1976<\/p>\n

PUBLISHER:
\n<\/strong>Ardis<\/p>\n

PLACE OF PUBLICATION<\/strong>:
\nAnn Arbor, Michigan<\/p>\n

DESCRIPTION<\/strong>:
\nA School for Fools<\/em> (Shkola dlia durakov<\/em>) is the first novel by Aleksandr Sokolov. This book in particular launched the name of its author right into the vibrant scene of Russian literature of the second half of 20th<\/sup> century. It was written in the early 1970s in a rather uncommon creative workshop: the quiet countryside in the neighbourhoods of Tver, by the Volga river. Here, in the hunting estate of Bezborodovo, the young Sokolov found refuge (and a job, as game warden) fleeing Moscow: the constant escape from centres, from public life and engagement (from group poetic experiences as well, such as the one among the SMOG<\/a>) characterized the writer back then, as it marks his life today. Sokolov lived in Bezborodovo for a year and a half (May 1972 \u2013 November 1973): in this context his first novel was born. He signed it simply, as the following ones, with the diminutive of his first name, Sasha Sokolov.<\/p>\n

The author could hardly hope for A School for Fools<\/em> to be published officially in the USSR. It was not a matter of content, as the book was devoid of any direct criticism (be it political, ideological, social), but rather of form, which somehow resonated with modernist \u2013 when not seen as pre-post-modernist (as argued in the manuals of Russian literature by Mark Lipovetsky, Irina Skoropanova, Viacheslav Kuritsyn) \u2013 echoes. The main character of the novel is \u201cstudent so-and-so\u201d, a young hero with dual personality who throughout the novel develops a monologue\/dialogue with his other Self. Even though he does not address nor comment the subject of Soviet everyday life, which as setting of the story lies in the background, the boy\u2019s perspective on the surrounding world is strictly personal and subjective, therefore it produces an estranging effect. \u201cStudent so-and-so\u201d dismantles the apparent logic of reality \u2013 first of all, the ideas of linear time, and of cause and effect relationship \u2013 proposing a different view, \u201cabsurd\u201d but possible and real, at least for him. The manuscript of A School for Fools<\/em>, then, had to take other roads to be published. The writer did not even try to obtain a permit of publication in the USSR. In these first months the novel had a samizdat circulation among friends and acquaintances.<\/p>\n

When Sokolov, after a long and gruelling process and thanks also to the help of the Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, obtained the permit to leave the USSR and arrived in Vienna (October 8th<\/sup> 1975), the manuscript of the novel was already overseas in Ann Arbor (Michigan), in the hands of the Ardis publishers, Carl and Ellendea Proffer. A School for Fools<\/em> had reached the United States thanks to Johanna Steindl, a young Austrian German teacher who Sokolov had met in Moscow and who afterwards became his second wife. Steindl managed to take the novel to Vienna and then mail it to Ardis. As Ellendea Proffer told in an interview, the manuscript arrived, it is unclear why, through Alexandria, Egypt, and the copy was in such very poor condition, so faded that it was hard to read. Maria (Masha) Slonim, who at the time worked at the publishing house, took it on to herself to read the manuscript and found it praiseworthy. Even Vladimir Nabokov, uncommonly, celebrated the talent of the yet unknown writer and his words \u2013 \u00ab\u043e\u0431\u0430\u044f\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u043d\u0430\u044f, \u0442\u0440\u0430\u0433\u0438\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043a\u0430\u044f \u0438 \u0442\u0440\u043e\u0433\u0430\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u043d\u0435\u0439\u0448\u0430\u044f \u043a\u043d\u0438\u0433\u0430\u00bb (an enchanting, tragic, and touching book) \u2013 have accompanied A School for Fools<\/em> since then.<\/p>\n

The great success of the first oeuvre of the young \u00e9migr\u00e9 writer was underlined by many a positive reviews that appeared on important Russian tamizdat journals of the time (such as \u00abRusskaia mysl\u00bb and \u00abPosev\u00bb, respectively in Paris and Frankfurt am Main), as well as by the different translations published in those years \u2013 in particular, in English (1976), German (1977) and Dutch (1978). In the 1980s and 1990s the novel was also translated into Polish, Swedish, Serbian, French, Portuguese, Danish, Spanish. In the archive preserved at UCSB (Sasha Sokolov Collection \u2013 Mss 117) there is also proof of the Italian publisher Mondadori\u2019s willingness for buying the translation rights (April 1976); however, the contract negotiations apparently turned out to be unsuccessful, as the Italian version of the novel appeared only in 2007, translated by Margherita Crepax and published by Salani. In the USSR the first excerpt from the book was published by magazine \u00abOgoniok\u00bb in August 1988, with a foreword by Tatyana Tolstaya, while the year after \u00abOktyabr\u00bb issued the unabridged version, with an afterword by Andrei Bitov.<\/p>\n

RUSSIAN EDITIONS<\/strong>:
\nS. Sokolov, Rasskazy, napysannye na verande<\/em>, in \u00abRusskaja \u017eizn’\u00bb, 20\/02\/1976, p. 3 and 21\/02\/1976, p. 3 [excerpt].
\nId., \u0160kola dlja durakov<\/em>, Ann Arbor, Ardis 1976.
\nId., \u0160kola dlja durakov<\/em>, in \u00abOgon\u00ebk\u00bb, n. 33, 13-20 August 1988, pp. 20-23 [excerpt, with a foreword by Tatyana Tolstaya].
\nId., Teper\u2019<\/em>, in \u00abSel\u2019skaja molode\u017e\u2019\u00bb, n. 3, 1989, pp. 32-37 [excerpt].
\nId., \u0160kola dlja durakov<\/em>, in \u00abOktjabr\u2019\u00bb, n. 3, 1989, pp. 75-156 [with an afterword by Andrei Bitov].
\nId., \u0160kola dlja durakov<\/em>, in Id., Sobranie so\u010dinenij v 2-ch tt.<\/em>, Simpozium, Sankt-Peterburg 1999, t. 1.
\nId., \u0160kola dlja durakov<\/em>, Moskva, OGI 2013 [with illustrations by Galya Popova; 2nd edition in 2016].<\/p>\n

TRANSLATIONS:
\n<\/strong>S. Sokolov, Nymphea<\/em>, translated by Carl Proffer, in C. Proffer, E. Proffer (eds.), The Ardis Anthology of Recent Russian Literature<\/em>, Ardis, Ann Arbor 1975, pp. 391-420 [excerpt].
\nId., Savl<\/em>, translated by Carl Proffer, \u00abChicago Review\u00bb, 1976, XXVIII, 1, pp. 4-28 [excerpt].
\nId., A School for Fools<\/em>, translated by Carl Proffer, Ardis, Ann Arbor 1977.
\nId., Die Schule der Dummen<\/em>, \u00fcbersetzt von Wolfgang Kasack, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt 1977.
\nId., School voor gekken<\/em>, vertaling van Gerard Cruys, Bezige Bij, Amsterdam 1978.
\nId., Szko\u0142a dla G\u0142upk\u00f3w<\/em>, prze\u0142. Aleksander Bogus\u0142awski, Kontra, Londyn 1984.
\nId., Skola for d\u00e5rar<\/em>, till svenska av Annika B\u00e4ckstr\u00f6m, AWE\/Gebers, Stockholm 1984.
\nId., From \u201cA School for Fools\u201d<\/em>, translated by Carl Proffer, in C. Brown (ed.), The Portable 20th Century Russian Reader<\/em>, Viking Press, New York 1985, pp. 586-595 [excerpt].
\nId., \u0160kola za ludake<\/em>, prevod Radmila Me\u010danin, Biblioteka Albatros \u2013 Filip Vi\u0161nji\u0107, Beograd 1988.
\nId., L’ecole des idiots<\/em>, trad. du russe par Fran\u00e7oise Monat, Edition Zo\u00e9, Gen\u00e8ve 1991.
\nId., Escola para bobos<\/em>, tradu\u00e7\u00e3o do russo por Konstantin Asryantz e Svetlana Kardash, Ars Poetica, Sao Paulo 1993.
\nId., D\u00e5reskolen<\/em>, oversat af Jan Hansen, Munksgaard-Rosinante, Copenhagen 1994.
\nId., Escuela para idiotas<\/em>, trad. de Margarita Estap\u00e9, Circulo de lectores, Barcelona 1994.
\nId., Lollide kool<\/em>, t\u00f5lkinud Rein Saluri, Eesti raamat, Tallinn 2005.
\nId., La scuola degli sciocchi<\/em>, trad. di Margherita Crepax, Salani, Milano 2007.
\nId., A School for Fools<\/em>, translated by Alexander Boguslawski, New York Review Books, New York 2015.<\/p>\n

BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/strong>:
\n<\/strong>AA.VV., \u00abCanadian-American Slavic Studies\u00bb, n. XXI (3-4), 1987 [monographic issue on Sokolov\u2019s oeuvre].
\nAA.VV., \u00abCanadian-American Slavic Studies\u00bb, n. XL (2-4), 2006 [monographic issue on Sokolov\u2019s oeuvre].
\nA. Boguslawski, Translator\u2019s Note<\/em>; Notes<\/em>, in S. Sokolov, A School for Fools<\/em>, translated by A. Boguslawski, New York Review Books, New York 2015, pp. VII-IX; pp. 179-191.
\nM. Caramitti, Strategie autofinzionali in Sinjavskij, Sokolov e Venedikt Erofeev<\/em>, tesi di dottorato, Universit\u00e0 di Roma \u201cLa Sapienza\u201d, 2001.
\nJ. Freedman, Memory, Imagination and the Liberating Force of Literature in Sasha Sokolov’s <\/em>A School for Fools, in \u00abCanadian-American Slavic Studies\u00bb, n. XXI (3-4), 1987, pp. 265-278.
\nF. Ingold, \u0160kola dlja durakov. Versuch \u00fcber Sa\u0161a Sokolov<\/em>, in \u00abWiener Slawistischer Almanach\u00bb, n. 3, 1979, pp. 93-124.
\nD.B. Johnson, A Structural Analysis of Sasha Sokolov’s <\/em>School for Fools: A Paradigmatic Novel<\/em>, in Birnbaum H., Eekman T. (eds.) Fiction and Drama in Eastern and Southeastern Europe: Evolution and Experiment in the Postwar Period<\/em>, Slavica, Columbus 1980, pp. 207-237.
\nD.B. Johnson, Sasha Sokolov: A Literary Biography<\/em>, in \u00abCanadian-American Slavic Studies\u00bb, n. XXI (3-4), 1987, pp. 203-230.
\nM. Lipoveckij, Mifologija metamorfoz: Poetika <\/em>\u0160koly dlja durakov Sa\u0161i Sokolova<\/em>, in \u00abOktjabr’\u00bb, n. 7, 1995, pp. 183-192.
\nI. Marchesini, Il personaggio scontornato in <\/em>\u0160kola dlja durakov. Dal romanzo di Sa\u0161a Sokolov agli adattamenti teatrali<\/em>, in \u00abBetween\u00bb, n. II (4), 2012, pp. 1-19.
\nO. Matich, Sasha Sokolov and His Literary Context<\/em>, in \u00abCanadian-American Slavic Studies\u00bb, n. XXI (3-4), 1987, pp. 301-319.
\nA. Suslov, Te, kto pri\u0161li<\/em>, in \u00abPosev\u00bb, n. 5, 1977, pp. 59-60.
\nP. Vajl’, A. Genis, Uroki <\/em>\u0160koly dlja durakov: O romane Sa\u0161i Sokolova<\/em>, in \u00abLiteraturnoe obozrenie\u00bb, n. 1, 1993, pp. 13-16.
\nA. Vavulina, Sa\u0161a Sokolov: Osobennosti chronotopa v<\/em> \u0160kole dlja durakov, in \u00abCanadian-American Slavic Studies\u00bb, n. XL (2-4), 2006, pp. 251-278.
\nG. Witte, Text als Spiel \u2013 Sa\u0161a Sokolovs <\/em>\u0160kola dlja durakov, in Id., Appell \u2013 Spiel \u2013 Ritual. Textpraktiken in der russischen Literatur der sechziger bis achtziger Jahre<\/em>, Harassowitz, Wiesbaden 1989, pp. 93-144.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Martina Napolitano]
\n[05\/02\/2020]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AUTHOR: Sasha Sokolov (1943- ) WRITTEN IN: 1972-1973 FIRST PUBLISHED (in Russian): 1976 PUBLISHER: Ardis PLACE OF PUBLICATION: Ann Arbor, Michigan DESCRIPTION: A School for Fools (Shkola dlia durakov) is the first novel by Aleksandr Sokolov. This book in particular launched the name of its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[615],"tags":[593,834,475,820],"class_list":["post-19038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opere-e-antologie-en","tag-francoforte-sul-meno-en","tag-mondadori-en","tag-parigi-en","tag-smog-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19038"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19041,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19038\/revisions\/19041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturedeldissenso.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}