The Technique of Artistic Prose. Lectures

The lectures delivered by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884–1937) to young Soviet writers and poets almost immediately after the revolution were published for the first time only 70 years later, at the twilight of the Soviet Union. In them, the author of the dystopian novel We emerges in a new light: as a subtle stylist with a keen literary instinct, seeing the text through and through, down to its very core. The reportorial style is combined here with philosophical conclusions that explain the plot, narrative, language, imagery, rhythm, and style of the artistic work. The collection also includes two autobiographies of Yevgeny Zamyatin, who disliked talking about himself, his reflections on literature of a turning point era, including the notorious essay I Am Afraid, and a number of stories mentioned in the lectures. Familiar to a rather narrow readership, they reveal a somewhat different Zamyatin – a writer closely looking into the depths of a simple person and independently following the open laws of literary craftsmanship.