Isaak Babel

Philip Ross Bullock (University of Oxford)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
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

Born 13 Jul 1894
Died 27 Jan 1941
Activity 1914-1940

Places

Born in Russia
Active in Russia

Cultural Identities

Jewish European

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist
Story-writer

Other

Film/TV Script-writer/ Screenwriter

Resources

Babel's Works

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Isaak Babel´'s early story “Odessa” seems, at first glance, to be a modest piece of reportage about his home town. But, as is so often the case with Babel', the text soon becomes a metaliterary meditation on art itself:

And now my thoughts move on from my Odessan discourse to higher matters. If you think about it, doesn't it strike you that in Russian literature there haven't been so far any real clear, cheerful descriptions of the sun?

According to Babel', Ivan Turgenev “poeticized the dewy morning, the calm night”, whereas “with Fedor Dostoevskii you

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2291 words

Citation: Bullock, Philip Ross. "Isaak Babel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 September 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=204, accessed 22 November 2024.]