Beyond the Letters

As we get hold of sharp and sliding border And listen to the buzzing sound of chime,- Don’t we go mad amidst the motley order And change of made-up reasons, space and time?.. Alexander Blok It took me eight years and a degree in literary studies to get to love this great postmodernist but it was definitely worth it. I must confess that the first books by Barnes I read as a student were beyond my understanding and therefore beyond my interest but since than I discovered a lot of his works that made me fall in love with his writing. “The Noise of Time” is definitely one of them. This book is  a perfect example of intermediality  (several types of art combined) and it throws its reader into the majestic world of classical music  telling about one of the most prominent composers of the previous century Dmitri Shostakovich  and his complicated relations with Soviet authorities. It’s widely known that Soviet Union was not the most creative environm...

"Madame Bovary, c'est moi" (Gustave Flaubert) Very often to understand a work of literature, a real work of literature I mean, it is necessary to know the background. Often the reasons that caused the author to write his book can become a key to its understanding. Often the key is the episodes of the author's biography or his beliefs. Here the key is Flaubert himself. Before I begin speaking about the novel itself I'd like to say a few words about Flaubert's concept of "ivory tower" . Flaubert liked to say that a real writer, metaphorically speaking, should lock himself in an ivory tower, which will separate him from the vulgar and trivial world, only then will he be able to produce a real work of art. What does this mean? Ivory was always considered to be a noble material, as it is very rare and expensive and only chosen ones can afford to have things made of it. Ivory tower symbolizes the nobility of writer, his moral superiority over oth...