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Cultural politics of literature

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    Cultural politics of literature

    Recently purchasing a collection of Gogol's short stories, it was surprising to learn in the preface that he was born in modern-day Ukraine, and that Ukrainian was his first language, even though his literary career was exclusively in Russian, making modern labels like "Ukrainian Russian" problematic, especially given the folk cultural revivals throughout Europe during the period. Such issues also affect Kafka, as he can't be considered Czech, yet the gro-Deutsch vs kleindeutsch debate was political, as well as literary, similarly to the "Irish-Ireland" argument during the Irish language revival. Even if a writer largely eschews nationalism, as was the case with Wilde, an author can hardly avoid all influences from his cultural and social heritage, with the contrasting attitudes of Garcia Marquez and Vargas Llosa on Latin America, along with Fanon and Camus on decolonisation evident in their personal views, even if largely absent from their published works (apart from the Martinique native).

    #2
    Khrushchev was also born in Ukraine. I think he only spoke Russian though

    Ken Branagh has long riffed about how growing up near Duncairn Gardens gave him a lifelong love of literature and the arts. Perhaps like me he got comics from Jimmy Young's shop, or maybe Swift's house round the corner was the influence?

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      #3
      Think you're thinking of Breshnev. Krushchev was born in Russia but grew up near the border and moved to Donbas as a teenager.
      Last edited by Bizarre Löw Triangle; 28-02-2022, 17:52.

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        #4
        Originally posted by Bizarre Löw Triangle View Post
        Think you're thinking of Breshnev. Krushchev was born in Russia but grew up near the border and moved to Donbas as a teenager.
        Thanks, I stand corrected

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