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Lectures on Russian Culture by Yuri Lotman (NF)
Rights sold: Italy – BOMPIANI, Serbia - AKADEMSKA KNJIGA
At the end of the 1980s, Lotman created a TV series entitled "Conversations about Russian Culture" (in Russian: "Беседы о русской культуре"). This series consisting of 22 lectures was broadcast by Russian TV Channel "Kultura" in 1990ies.
Later, Lotman created and released the 600-pages volume based on this series, entitled Dueling, Gallantry and Revolt: from Saint Petersburg to Siberia. Life of Russian Nobility in its Palmy Days, or Lectures on Russian Culture.
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The Portrait and Around, a novel by Vladimir Makanin (1978)
Rights sold: Czech - Svoboda, Germany - Aufbau
In his 1978 The Portrait and Around (Portret i vokrug) Makanin pinpoints a major problem for the Russian intelligent; namely, his inability to recognize his guilt. The Portrait and Around revolves around a ‘man of the sixties’, Starokhatov, a man who abuses his position as a well-known scriptwriter and producer to sign his name to scripts written by novice authors. Starokhatov is no monster (he is capable of generous, even noble acts), but his ability to create a false, successful self-image through his plagiarism points not only to his lack of ethics, but to his lack of identity. Identity is a major problem for the main character in this novel, Igor Petrovich, who becomes involved in the Starokhatov case when a friend asks him to help create a ‘portrait’ of the man. Igor uncovers evidence of Starokhatov’s theft of scripts but finds himself unable to take any action against the man. This is not only due to an intelligent's ineffectuality; Starokhatov tells Igor that he ‘sees himself’ in Starokhatov, whose criminality he has exposed. Starokhatov suggests one possible motivation for lgor's inability to act; for Igor, laying charges against this man would be like indicting himself; and he cannot accept his own criminality.
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