Literature and Politics: Pro et Contra (Reflections on O. Yu. Panova's Monograph about Soviet – African American Literary Relations)

Abstract

When it comes to African American literature, Russian readers or researchers can always rely on the most authoritative contemporary source – the works by O. Yu. Panova, Professor at Moscow State University, a renowned expert on American literature. Her book Afroamerikanskie pisateli i SSSR. Literatura i politika (African American Writers and the USSR. Literature and Politics), published in 2024, is distinguished by the specific aspect it discusses. The book is about writers, journalists, or enthusiasts of the Communist movement, and specialists in other professions who visited the Soviet Union during a period of several decades and left memoirs, travelogues, articles, and letters about their trips. Panova introduces into scientific circulation many names of unknown, little-known, or forgotten authors. Famous writers who are fairly well-known in our country, whose works have been translated into Russian or are being translated now, also come into view. The most significant figures for the study of Soviet–African American cultural contacts include Claude McKay, William Du Bois, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison. One of the chapters of the book is devoted to the interesting facts of ‘Black Pushkin Anniversary’ of the 1937 in the USA. Panova’s monograph demonstrates the reader how inevitable and productive a combination of literature and politics turns out to be. Visits of African American authors to the Soviet Union were often due to non-literary circumstances, for example, McKay and Du Bois came to the Congress of Comintern at the invitation of the Soviet side. At the same time, some of the significant works were brought to life not by the enthusiasm of the ‘red thirties’ decade or the fascination with the Soviet experiment, but rather by a departure from an active political position. Lesser-known memoir texts included in this publication as an addendum, mostly translated into Russian by the author of the monograph, also deserve attention. The new book on Soviet–African American literary contacts highlights a whole number of issues that are of particular interest to researchers in several humanities disciplines.