Sunday 31 July 2016

Magic Realism in Russia



Over on my blog Adventures in the Czech Republic I blogged about Czech magic realism and how Slavic folklore influenced Czech national identity and with it magic realism.

This post brings you a fascinating Library of Congress video of a lecture by Oksana Marafioti about another Slavic country, Russia.  In this video the impact of Russian folk beliefs and religions (ancestor worship, shamanism and orthodox Christianity) on magic realism is outlined.

As the readers of this blog will be aware, I am a fan of Russian magic realism. Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin was a recent highlight for me and absolutely fits with the thesis of the video lecture.

The video is an hour long and worth every minute of your time.



1 comment:

Bianca said...

Absolutely fascinating! Makes me wonder whether my own family roots in Eastern Europe lead me to study Shamanism a long time ago? Oksana brings it all beautifully into context along the historical timeline. HG Wells is very much alive to this day . . . and the idea arises about the relation between the "Immortality of the Mind" and today's penchant towards Artificial Intelligence?

Thank you for sharing this informative video with us! Lots of food for thought . . .

Bianca