Artsybashev, Mikhail

Otto Boele (Universiteit Leiden)
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Epitomizing, according to many critics, the “decadent” nature of late-imperial literature, the novels and stories of neo-realist Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev (1878-1927) were unavailable to Russian readers for a long time. The novel

Sanin

(1907), a

roman a thèse

that seemed to preach unrestrained sex and extreme individualism, especially caused such a scandal that it was banned a year after its publication and subsequently remained locked away in the special storage sections (

spetskhran

) of Soviet libraries for decades. Artsybashev’s reputation as the author of that single infamous novel has survived to this day. His work was published again in the 1990s, and recent scholarly attention to Artsybashev has been more nuanced, but has not led to a major reassessment of his writing.

The

2083 words

Citation: Boele, Otto. "Artsybashev, Mikhail". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 April 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13280, accessed 28 March 2024.]

13280 Artsybashev, Mikhail 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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