The awards ceremony for the Gorky Prize, an international literary competition, will take place for the fourth time on the island of Capri (Italy). Initially conceived as a means of promoting Russian literature in Italy and Italian literature in Russia and to promote literary translations, the prize has reached a new apogee in its scope.
This year the Special Gorky Prize for “outstanding contribution to the development of world culture” did not go to a man of letters but rather to man of music, maestro Valery Gergiev. Similarly, last year this prize went to world-renowned Italian opera diva Cecilia Bartoli.
“This is an intentional stepping back from literature for the benefit of other types of art,” says writer Viktor Erofeyev, co-chair of the jury from the Russian side. “We consider the awarding of this prize for this nomination a recognition not only of professional mastery but also of the enormous role played in unifying cultures and forming a common cultural space, part of which is literature.”
Erofeyev believes the Gorky Prize to be a unique contest without analogs in the literary world. The contest is unique in that the work of the translator is for the first time made equal to that of the author. The Gorky Prize is awarded in two nominations – Writers and Translators – and crowned by the special prize for “outstanding contribution to the development of world culture.”
“The uniqueness and value of the new literary competition is in the fact that it draws attention to the role of the translator,” notes Italian literary critic and jury member Andrea Cortellessa. “There are few in Italy who can read Russian in the original. So this is the literature which we have come to know thanks to translators. Today it is their work which is leading to the enrichment and development of regional literary trends.”
Another Italian linguist Giovanni Bogliolo, co-head of the award and chair of the Italian section of the jury, adds: “With the help of such open dialogue we can not only evaluate literary works from Russia but also carefully track changes in Italian literature. This is possible thanks to comparisons, contrasts and the search for answers to new questions.”
The main principle of the Gorky Prize is a rotation of Russian and Italian seasons. Thus, in turns, the nominees are Russian and Italian writers and translators. Such an approach makes it possible to observe the tradition of cultural exchange and at the same time identify the most interesting achievements in the contemporary literature of both countries.
One of the unique aspects of the prize its two-sided jury, which includes experts from Italy and Russia. This year the Russian jury, in addition to Viktor Erofeyev, includes sociologist and translator Boris Dubin, literary critic Lev Danilkin, and Slavic studies expert Galina Denisov. The Italian jury, apart from its chairman Giovanni Bogliolo, includes literary critic Andrea Cortellessa, Slavic studies expert Stefano Garzonio and writer Antonella Anedda.
The year 2012 is a Russian year for the Gorky prize, so in the Writers nomination we find such authors as Andrei Volos (for his novel Animator), Zakhar Prilepin (for his novel Pathologies) and Olga Slavnikova (for her novel The Man Who Couldn’t Die). The top translators were Irina Zaslavskaya – for her translation of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s novel Ragazzi di vita, Yuri Ilin – for his translation of Margaret Mazzantini’s novel Don’t Move, and Irina Konstantinova – for her translation of Paolo Giordano’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers.
In parallel with the main competition, the competition of young translators (up to 35 years old) is also becoming ever more popular. One of the main objectives of Russian-Italian literary cooperation is the discovery of new young talents in literary translation. The winners of this year’s contest were Anna Lentovskaya (Russia) and Enzo Striano (Italy).
With this being the Russian year of the Gorky Prize, the ceremony honoring the winners has been transformed into a major cultural program in that resembles the Russian seasons on Capri initiated by Maxim Gorky so many years ago, attracting such figures as Feodor Chaliapin, Ivan Bunin and Leonid Andreev. This year’s participants include such Russian writers as Mikhail Shishkin, Vladimir Sorokin and Sergei Gandlevsky. The Mariinsky Theater is also presenting a major concert program on Capri as a part of the prize-related events. A film and art retrospective on the life and works of dancer Rudolf Nureyev has also opened in the island in southern Italy.
“Nureyev lived not far from Capri on an island which he owned,” says Elena Lebedeva, the exhibit’s curator. “Many exhibits have been dedicated to him and most of them have been organized according to a similar principle: photographs and costumes in which the dancer performed. But the fact that Nureyev danced in these shoes or those pants does little to help understand his work. We decided to take another approach: to focus on the works of young artists and designers which project the contemporary perception of Nureyev’s plastique and personality. Photographs serve only to flesh out the exhibit.”
The organizers of the Gorky Prize emphasize that they see the literary award’s future as not being restricted to literature. After all, during Gorky’s stay in Capri an entire Russian artistic community emerged and developed. The main aim of the Gorky Prize is the return of this community for the sake of restoring cultural contacts with Italy and the formation of shared space for cultural dialogue between the two countries.
Anton Samarin
