The uncensored man : Leonid Tsypkin, Russian writer and Soviet jew (1926-1982)
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation introduces the reader to the uncensored Russian writer Leonid Tsypkin (1926-1982) and his unique mode of creation. A doctor by profession, Tsypkin was too afraid of the possible ramifications on his career to publish and instead "wrote for the drawer." It was not until he was denied an exit visa and became a "refusenik, " that he decided to finally seek publication in earnest. Tsypkin carried with him a consciousness of his marginal position in Russian literature, as well as the peripheral position of Jews in Russian culture and in contemporary Soviet society. I argue that not only do his texts' orientation toward the drawer endow them with a unique orientation toward history, but the lack of an obvious interlocutor contributes to what I have termed Tsypkin's act of "co-creation." Through a series of encounters with material objects, photographs, or literary texts, Tsypkin is able to forge his texts in dialogue with other voices and perspectives, thus gaining a new understanding of himself at the same time. The four chapters of this dissertation move chronologically through Tsypkin's work, offering close readings and analysis of three major prose works and one collection of photographs. They trace Tsypkin's search for material which reflects him and can thus provide a view on the self from the outside. To this end he uses photography, autobiographical fiction, and the travel narrative. His most successful attempt at achieving that view on the self from the outside comes from the act of reading -- and, in particular, reading the Dostoevskys, both Fyodor Mikhailovich and Anna Grigorievna (née Snitkina). Identifying with these writers and their characters during the act of reading gives Tsypkin the means to fashion himself into what I call an "uncensored man, " in the vein of Dostoevsky's "Underground Man, " who also wrote as if he had no reader. When Susan Sontag eventually discovered Tsypkin's novel in translation and helped to bring it to attention, she was drawn to the "Tsypkin sentence" that can extend for pages and unite a multitude of characters, places, and epochs. Tsypkin's unique form encapsulates an understanding of history as non-linear. I argue that his texts' mode of existence as unpublished literature, their distinctive sentence structure, and their transgressive content allow readers to feel as if they are in two places at once - a feat of escapism and a necessary skill for the new type of "underground man, " the "internal emigre, " or the Jew in the late Soviet Union
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Winestock, Brett Roark |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Safran, Gabriella, 1967- |
| Thesis advisor | Safran, Gabriella, 1967- |
| Thesis advisor | Greenleaf, Monika, 1952- |
| Thesis advisor | Zipperstein, Steven J, 1950- |
| Degree committee member | Greenleaf, Monika, 1952- |
| Degree committee member | Ilchuk, Yuliya |
| Degree committee member | Zipperstein, Steven J, 1950- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Brett Winestock |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Brett Roark Winestock
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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