NOS Literary Prize

Special Project: NOS-1973

The Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation as part of its Literary Prize NOS / NEW PROSE, presents its new project ‘NOS-1973’.

The project functions on the same basis as the Literary Prize ‘NOS’, with a format of public debates and an open and transparent decision making process. However, this time the discussion debated by a jury and literary experts will not be centered on a short-list of works fr om Russia’s recent literary scene. Instead the discussion will focus on literary works that are almost forty years old, and the short list will include texts that were either written or first published in 1973.

· Alexander Galich. The Main Rehearsal (year it was written)
· Benedict Erofeyev. Moscow-Petushki (first published)
· Vasily Shukshin. Characters (first published)
· Andrey Sinyavsky. Walks with Pushkin (first published)
· Lyudmila Petrushevskaya. Music Lessons (year it was written)
· Fasil Iskander. Sandro fr om Chegem (publication of first chapters)
· Sasha Sokolov. School for Fools (the year it was written)
· Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The GULAG Archipelago (publication of first volume)
· Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Picnic on the Edge (first published)
· Yury Trifonov. Impatience (first published)
· Evgeny Kharitonov. Prose (not dated, the main part of the book relates to the 70s)
· Varlam Shalamov. Kolyma Tales (written between 1954-1973)
· Igor Kholin. Prose (Written up to the end of the 60s) 
- Vladimir Nabokov. Strong Opinions (First Published)

Concept behind the project

The idea to establish the NOS prize for texts from 1973 sprung from the jury's sense of duty and necessity to outline and at the same time consider for itself what constitutes a new prose. The competition looks for points wh ere new aesthetic styles overlap, for new linguistic styles in literature and for new depths of social analysis (with the intention of highlighting the severity, breadth and depth of the literary portrayals of our social surroundings). Literature from the recent past, including those texts we have included in our short list of works from 1973, confirms that it is possible for different literary aesthetics to overlap and combine forming deeper impressions of our social existence. To that end, behind each name on the short list lies a new aesthetic code and a new understanding of sociality. Our key goal is to test the methods in analyzing and researching recognized classics and to clarify the steps we take in highlighting certain literary works.

It goes without saying that we are referring namely to our literary games, rather than to the establishment of a ‘new cultural canon’. As in the debates for NOS 2009 and 2010, we intend to involve the wider public in the analysis of various stylistic and aesthetic combinations in order to broaden their conception of literature and to allow them to identify those literary works which most strongly resonate with today's intellectual culture. In this respect, these debates appear as efforts to rewrite history. For instance, can you possibly imagine how such a short list could have been considered some thirty eight years ago, clandestinely compiled from above the lim its set out by Soviet publishing houses to alienate literature written by the Russian émigré community, and that which appeared in underground circles.

Why 1973?

The Foundation's decision was almost by chance. The first and founding impulse behind it was the fact that in that year such literary works came to light as “The GULAG Archipelago”, “Moscow-Petushki”, “Characters”, “Impatience”, “Walks with Pushkin”, the first chapters of “Sandro from Chegen”, and “Picnic on the Edge”, as well as “Strong Opinions”. There is no doubt that this is indeed a rare exceptional combination of literature! With this in mind, we explored the many texts from the underground culture of the time, all of which were published significantly later. A series of other authors were selected, either those who finished their key masterpieces in 1973 (such as “Kolyma Tales”, “School for Fools” and “The Main Rehearsal”), or whose works simply relate to the period of 1973. It is important to note that we do accept in these cases (such as Kharitonov and Kholin) that to a large extent texts were justifiably not dated by their authors.

Certainly, we have missed out some details here! Naturally, any year could have been picked for the competition, although not one with quite such an abundance of literary talent. But as Huizinga once said, every game has it's boundaries. And so does the NOS-1973 competition. On that note, we ask that the boundaries set out are considered and adhered to as conditions for the game. At the end of the day the most important thing remains that we reach a decisive result!

RESULTS:

the jury's choice - Andrey Sinyavsky "Walks with Pushkin"
the experts' choice - Benedict Erofeyev "Moscow-Petushki"
the choice of auditorium - Varlam Shalamov "Kolyma Tales"
the result of internet voting - Fasil Iskander "Sandro from Chegem"