Journal | Lagoonscapes
Monographic journal issue | 3 | 1 | 2023
Research Article | The Volga, Mother of All Russian Rivers, Silent Protagonist of Vasilij Grossman’s Novel Stalingrad
The Volga, Mother of All Russian Rivers, Silent Protagonist of Vasilij Grossman’s Novel Stalingrad
Abstract
In Russian history and culture, the Volga River represents not only a fundamental element of the landscape, but also an important cultural motif, celebrated in numerous folkloric expressions from the very beginnings of the civilisations that arose along its banks and in the territories it crossed. Starting from the end of the 18th century, the image of the river also became a literary motif and its presence connotes the poetic and prose writings in the following centuries. The Volga River also flows through Vasily Grossman's novels and short stories and in particular in the novel 'Stalingrad', its presence is substantial and, above all, is marked by a semantic stratification of remarkable interest. The Volga is here a silent interlocutor of the novel's protagonists and its changing appearance reflects individual and collective instances, against the backdrop of the dramatic Battle of Stalingrad
Submitted: March 1, 2023 | Accepted: May 10, 2023 | Published Forthcoming | Language: en
Keywords Stalingrad • Russian Literature • Vasilij Grossman • Russian rivers • Volga
Copyright © 2023 Giulia Baselica. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2023/01/010
