Competition named after Babel tyranny of taste long list. “Prose requires a lead backside,” or the World Club of Odessa residents, Babel Prize, take two

POSITION
about the International Literary Prize
named after Isaac Babel

The Isaac Babel International Literary Prize (hereinafter referred to as the Prize) for a short story (novel) is a logical continuation of a unique project to perpetuate the literary heritage of the famous writer. The monument to Isaac Babel erected in the city of Odessa and the Prize should support and strengthen the international status of Odessa as a city with deep cultural traditions, capable of modernization and a new mentality. The main criterion for selecting works for the Prize should be, according to Babel, “the tyranny of taste.”

1. General questions

1.1. The founders of the Isaac Babel International Literary Prize are the Odessa Regional State Administration and the World Club of Odessans (President - Mikhail Zhvanetsky).

1.2. The co-founders of the Prize are: Odessa Literary Museum, literary magazine "Rainbow" (Kiev), Literary almanac "Deribasovskaya - Richelievskaya" (Odessa), Odessa National Scientific Library, Lydia Isaakovna Babel (daughter of the writer, USA).

1.3. The prize was established with the aim of identifying and supporting the best examples of modern literary fiction in the genre of short stories (short stories), written in Russian in Ukraine, Russia and other countries of the world.

1.4. The prize is awarded annually for the best short story (novel) in Russian.

1.5. The prize does not establish restrictions for authors of works based on age, citizenship, place of residence and place of publication.

1.6. The Prize is financed from the expenditures of the regional budget and charitable contributions from citizens, organizations and enterprises (trust funds: Isaac Babel Foundation).

1.7. Amount of monetary reward Prize: 1st place – 60 thousand UAH, 2nd place – 30 thousand UAH, 3rd place – 15 thousand UAH.

1.8. The announcement of the beginning of the award season, the procedure and conditions for nominating works for the Prize, the amount of monetary reward for the Prize (I, II and III place), the procedure and timing for announcing the Prize winners are published in the media, the websites of the Odessa Regional State Administration and the Prize.

1.9. The premium season is announced no earlier than January 15 of each year. Acceptance of works for the Prize begins on the day the award season is announced and ends on April 15 of each year.

2. Directorate of the Prize

2.1. The Directorate of the Prize is appointed and dismissed by decision of the founders and consists of a coordinator, administrator and secretary.

2.2. The Directorate of the Prize determines the procedure for nominating works and processing documents.

2.3. The Directorate of the Prize presents the founders with nominations for jury members and the composition of the expert council.

2.4. The Directorate of the Prize presents a sketch (layout) of the main prize, the form of the Prize diploma; approves the form of the score sheet and makes an announcement about the start of the next bonus season.

2.5. The Directorate of the Prize organizes the work of the council of experts and jury, forms the secretariat of the Prize, searches for the best works of authors writing in the short story genre, organizes the publication of books, almanacs, round tables, master classes, creative evenings, meetings, concerts, scientific conferences, “Babel Readings”, etc.

2.6. A representative of the Directorate may be a member of the Prize jury.

2.7. The employees of the directorate carry out their activities on a paid basis, at the expense of monetary contributions from the Isaac Babel Charitable Foundation.

3. Procedure for nomination for the Prize

3.1. Works for the Prize are nominated by the author (authors) of the work, publishing houses, the media, creative unions, and literary critics.

3.2. When nominating for the Prize, the following information is provided to the Directorate:

Necessary contact numbers, address;

3.4. Works for the Prize are nominated from among those published:

In literary magazines and literary and artistic almanacs of Ukraine, Russia and other countries of the world;

Publishing houses of Ukraine, Russia and other countries of the world;

In the media, including electronic ones, in Ukraine, Russia and other countries of the world.

3.5. Works that were published between March 1 of the previous season and March 1 of the award season are nominated for the Prize.

3.6. Works published before March 1 of the previous season may be nominated for the Prize in the current award season if they are nominated by at least three members of the expert council.

3.7. Works cannot be nominated for the Prize again.

3.9. The volume of a story (novel) is no less than 0.25 and no more than 1 author’s sheet (an author’s sheet is a text of 40 thousand printed characters, including spaces). A series of short stories under a general title, with a volume of at least 0.25 books, can also be nominated for the prize. sheet

3.10. In the absence of a complete package of documents, the Directorate of the Prize has the right to withdraw the work from consideration.

3.11. Works nominated for the Prize are sent by email to the Prize. [email protected]. Also accepted for consideration are works sent by regular mail to the following address: Babel Prize, st. Bazarnaya, 27, of. 6, Odessa, 65014, Ukraine. Works must be delivered to the Prize no earlier than January 15 and no later than April 15 of the award year.

3.12. All works nominated for the Prize are registered with the Prize secretariat and receive registration numbers.

3.13. Works nominated for the Prize are not reviewed and are not returned. There is no correspondence with the authors.

4. Expert advice

4.1. Writers, literary critics, literary scholars, philologists, library staff, and journalists are invited to join the council of experts.

4.2. If a work of a member of the expert council is nominated for the Prize, the latter is obliged to refuse to participate in the work of the expert council, informing the Directorate of the Prize, or to withdraw his work from consideration in the manner prescribed by these Regulations.

4.3. Members of the council of experts, guided by literary taste and the current Regulations, draw up a “Long List”.

4.4. The “long list” is formed by the Prize’s expert council, consists of works pre-selected by members of the expert council and is announced no later than May 15 of each year.

4.5. The list of works presented to the jury by members of the expert council is approved by a general decision of the expert council.

4.6. The “Long List” is published in the media and on the official website of the Prize.

4.7.Members of the Council of Experts carry out their activities on a paid basis, through monetary contributions from the Isaac Babel Charitable Foundation.

5. Prize jury

5.1. The Prize winners are determined by a jury.

5.2. The jury consists of six people who elect a chairman.

5.3. The jury is formed by the Prize Directorate on the principle of broad public representation, which may include professional writers, literary scholars, cultural figures, and journalists.

5.4. A jury member cannot be a member of the expert council.

5.5. Members of the jury select works for the “Short List” from the “Long List” presented by the council of experts and determine the winners of the Prize by voting.

5.6. The “Short List” is formed by the Prize jury from the works of the “Long List” and is announced no later than June 10 of the current year.

5.8. If a work of a jury member is included in the “Short List,” the latter must refuse to participate in the jury and a new one must be invited to take his place.

5.9. The term of office of the jury is one award season. The next season's jury may be completely renewed or partially replaced.

5.10. The list of jury members is published in the media and on the official website of the Prize.

5.11. The decision of the jury is documented in a protocol, announced at the award ceremony, and posted on the Prize website and in the media.

5.13. Members of the jury carry out their activities on a paid basis, at the expense of monetary contributions from the Isaac Babel Charitable Foundation.

6. Award ceremony

6.1. The Award ceremony takes place annually on July 13, the birthday of Isaac Babel, in the Golden Hall of the Odessa Literary Museum.

6.2. Persons who are awarded the Prize are given the title of laureate of the Isaac Babel International Literary Prize, are awarded a corresponding diploma and are paid a monetary reward. The winner of the Prize (1st place) is paid a monetary reward, awarded a diploma and the main prize - a miniature figurine of the “Wheel of Fate” (sculptors G. Frangulyan and M. Reva).

6.4. Monetary rewards for first, second, third place, funding for the work of the jury, the council of experts, the Directorate of the Prize, as well as other organizational expenses are determined annually by order of the chairman of the regional state administration, at the expense of the regional budget and monetary contributions from the Isaac Babel Charitable Foundation based on the proposal of the main administrator funds, which is determined by the decision of the regional council on the budget for the corresponding year.

The Isaac Babel International Literary Prize for the best short story (novel) is a continuation of the project to perpetuate the literary heritage of the outstanding writer.

THE IDEA belongs to Valery Khait - vice-president of the World Club of Odessa residents, laureate of the municipal literary prize named after Konstantin Paustovsky, compiler of the volume “Odessa Humor” in the “Anthology of Satire and Humor of Russia of the 20th Century” (Moscow, “Eksmo”, 2004) and the volume “Odessa Humor” . Century 21" (Moscow, "EXMO", 2015). Valery Khait is the initiator and editor of the literary project “Books of Marianna Goncharova” (More than 10 books; for the story “Dragon from Perkalab” M. Goncharova was awarded the title of winner of the International Literary Competition “Russian Prize” 2013); author of the idea of ​​a nationwide fundraising and project manager for the installation of a monument to Isaac Babel in Odessa (the monument was opened on September 4, 2011); editor-in-chief of the Odessa humorous magazine "Fontan".

The founders of the award are the Odessa Regional State Administration and the World Club of Odessa Citizens. Co-founders are the Odessa Literary Museum, the Rainbow magazine (Kiev), the almanac “Deribasovskaya - Richelievskaya” (Odessa), the Odessa National Scientific Library, as well as the writer’s daughter Lydia Isaakovna Babel (USA).

Funding for the award is provided from the regional budget and charitable contributions from citizens, organizations and enterprises (trust funds: Isaac Babel Foundation). Amount of monetary reward: 1st place - 60 thousand UAH, 2nd place - 30 thousand UAH, 3rd place - 15 thousand UAH.

“Regulations on the Isaac Babel International Literary Prize” explains the conditions of the competition. The prize was established as an annual one with the aim of identifying and supporting the best examples of modern literary fiction in the genre of short stories (short stories), written in Russian in Ukraine and other countries of the world. Acceptance of works for the competition is from January 15 to April 15.

The Prize Directorate is appointed to perform organizational functions on a paid basis. A Council of Experts is elected, consisting of writers, critics, literary scholars, philologists, library staff, and journalists. Members of the expert council, working on a paid basis, compile a “Long List” of pre-selected works, which is announced no later than May 15 of each year and published on the website and in the media.

The prize laureates are determined by a six-member Jury formed by the Prize Directorate, who elect a chairman. The “Short List” is formed by the jury from the works of the “Long List” and is announced no later than June 10 of the current year. The decision of the jury is documented in a protocol, announced at the award ceremony, and posted on the website and in the media.

The award ceremony takes place annually on July 13, the birthday of Isaac Babel, in the Golden Hall of the Odessa Literary Museum.

The winners of the competition are awarded the title of laureate of the Isaac Babel International Literary Prize, awarded a corresponding diploma and paid a monetary reward. The winner of the First Prize is paid a monetary reward, awarded a diploma and the Grand Prix - a miniature figurine “Wheel of Fate” (sculptors G. Frangulyan and M. Reva).

The Jury of the first award season, along with Valery KHAIT, included: Andrey DMITRIEV (chairman of the jury, Kiev) - writer and screenwriter, laureate of the Apollo Grigoriev Prize, Znamya and Oktyabr magazines, Yasnaya Polyana and Yasnaya Polyana awards Russian Booker"; Yuri KOVALSKY - editor-in-chief of the literary magazine "Rainbow" (Kiev), laureate of the Vladimir Dahl literary prize; awarded the medal “Honorary Distinction” of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine and the honorary badge of the Union of Writers of Belarus; Andrey MALAEV-BABEL - grandson of Isaac Babel, actor, director, teacher, writer (USA); Sergey MAKHOTIN (St. Petersburg) - author of works for children, laureate of the Marshak and Chukovsky prizes, laureate of the Scarlet Sails prize, holder of the Honorary Diploma named after. Andersen International Council on Children's and Young People's Books; Boris MINAEV (Moscow) - writer and journalist, laureate of the “Treasured Dream” award for the best book for children and youth, laureate of the “October” magazine award.

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A new literary prize named after Babel was established in Odessa. Starting next year, it will be awarded for the best Russian-language story. This event became an occasion to discuss the fate of the genre today. If one of the highest achievements is Babel's story, then what texts will be worthy of it? What is “Babel’s story” as a phenomenon, to what extent is it Jewish, to what extent is it Russian? Lechaim asked these questions to Stanford University professor and Babel scholar Grigory Freidin, writer and editor, one of the founders of the Babel Prize Valery Khait, writer and prize jury member Boris Minaev, writer Inna Lesova, writer and critic Valery Shubinsky.

How it was done in Babel's story

Grigory Freidin → In its richness, end-to-end harmonization of elements, flash of consciousness (éclat, epiphany, breakthrough into eternity) and with a minimum volume, Babel’s story is close to the lyrical poetry of his contemporaries. In terms of its themes - violence and sex, both together and separately, but always in resonance with the breakdown of the social, if not world, order - its path lies in the plane of the Western literary tradition, which originates from Homer and the Holy Scriptures. Babel’s contemporary Osip Mandelstam formulated this position aphoristically and accurately: “If not for Helen, / What is Troy alone for you, Achaean men?” (“Insomnia. Homer. Tight Sails”, 1915). In other words, the world conflict is a cosmos, and a microcosm is a knot of love, jealousy, violence in one microsociety, and vice versa. We say “love and jealousy,” but we mean “war” or “revolution,” or we say “war,” “revolution,” but we mean “violence and love.”

Similarly with the Holy Scripture and its role in the Western literary tradition: whatever we are talking about in particular - about the forefathers or tribes of Israel, whether about Joshua or Jesus of Nazareth - the narrative determines the entire cosmos, the entire world of God... Of course, what true for the whole tradition, will be true for all those who belong to it. The peculiarity of Babel and other modernists of the beginning of the last century - Mandelstam, Khlebnikov, Akhmatova, Joyce - is a clear awareness of both the origins of this tradition and its exhaustion. And they fought against exhaustion through a newly realized return to fundamental principles (a move similar, for example, to fundamentalism in religion, psychoanalysis and extreme political ideologies). In this perspective, modernism, especially Russian, makes a bid for the Renaissance. Thus, the colossal richness of Babel’s miniature story is determined by the fact that it allows one to discern in the sharp everyday life of the vicissitudes of the sacred text, and in the rough noise - a variation of the melody played by the entire world orchestra.

And one last thing. Like contemporary Russian lyrical poets, such as Blok (“The Incarnation Trilogy”), Mandelstam (“Stone”, “Second Book”, “Voronezh Notebooks”), Akhmatova (“Evening”, “The Rosary”, “Anno Domini”) , Babel wrote in cycles (“Odessa Stories”, “Cavalry”, “Stories about Childhood”, etc.), mainly in the first person single narrator with (auto)biography, which is directly related to the events described. Thus, with all the miniature and lyricism of a single short story, Babel, building stories in a cycle, creates an epic space for the narrator’s voice, similar to a modernist novel with its internally reflective hero, and at the same time retains the dazzling expressiveness and plot flexibility of a small form. In this regard, he remains unsurpassed, although he has brilliant followers, such as the American writer Grace Paley.

The question remains: Russian or Jewish writer Isaac Babel? He is fully both, as, for example, Gogol (Ukrainian and Russian), James Joyce (Irish and English), Philip Roth (Jewish and American), James Baldwin (Negro and American), or Vidiadhar Naipaul (Trinidadian). Indian and English). The subject matter, the author's voice - mainly, but not exclusively - connect Babel with recent life modernized Jewry of Odessa, a port city on western outskirts of the Russian Empire. Odessa Jewry was numerous, some of it was distinguished by its prosperity, education and breadth of outlook; being a Jew in Odessa did not mean being hopelessly disadvantaged, as happened in the Pale of Settlement and beyond. The port city was filled with foreigners, and Odessa residents from the educated environment of the city, including Jews, felt no less Europeans (sometimes more) than subjects of the Russian Empire. Thus, the French became Babel’s first teachers of literature. This is where the amazing relaxedness with which Babel deals with the Jewish theme comes from. I believe that freedom from typical Russian-Jewish oppression was what struck Gorky in young Babel.

The earliest of the “Odessa Stories,” “The King,” already gives an idea of ​​how Babel, “much beaten, but not killed” in the Polish campaign of 1920, built his palimpsest short story, layering “unholy” modernity on archetypes sanctified by tradition .

“The King,” first published in June 1921 in starved and impoverished Odessa, begins with a description of the courtyard kitchen where food is being prepared for the wedding of Benny Krik’s sister. Countless piles of food, streams of chef's sweat and the Homeric feast itself refer to carnival Rabelais' novel and set the overall parodic-utopian tone for the story.

The nickname of the Odessa gangster, put in the title, suggests another plot - this time taken from the Jewish Holy Scripture: the coming of the Messiah, that is, the king (King), the anointed of G‑d, with a strong hand, capable of establishing peace and justice. This is what Babel’s King does, albeit in an ironic way. Benya starts a fire in the police station, the police chief is forced to call off the raid, and the world of the Odessa Moldavanka gathered at the wedding - and therefore the world in general - can enjoy the ancient Jewish utopia - to calmly “drink and eat” and not worry about “this nonsense.” And the place of the persecutor of the Jews, the sovereign emperor, is taken by the Jewish king of bandits.

Two more key plots emerge in the insert story telling about the marriage of Benny Krik to the daughter of the dairy magnate Eichbaum. Consonant with the famous formalist Boris Eikhenbaum, the surname hints at a literary motif, emphasizing that the supplier of dairy products with an unmarried daughter is nothing more than a parody of Sholom Aleichem, the author of stories about Tevye the milkman and his five unmarried daughters.

Thus, the inserted tale forces the reader to compare the new art with the old, and Babel with his great predecessor, whom Benya promises to bury with honor in the first Jewish cemetery “at the very gates” and erect for him “a monument of pink marble.” Let's reveal the comparison. Sholom Aleichem is the father of Yiddish literature, and he, Babel, creates Russian Jewish literature; Sholom Aleichem's hero, Tevye, is defenseless, he - lactic, and Babel’s hero is a pistol-waving urban bandit; Sholom Aleichem's Jews are patriarchal and kosher-observant, while Babel's Jews are modernized: they do not care about the taboos of Judaism, and they slaughter heifers so that the calves “slide in their mother’s blood.” In The King, Babel leaves the world of Sholom Aleichem behind, although he admits that he has moved beyond it.

Another innovation is Babel’s interweaving of the love theme with violence, that is, the knightly motif. In itself, it is trivial, but only if you don’t consider that the Jewish literary tradition does not know love covered in violence - such as that of Paris and Helen, Dido and Aeneas, Andrei Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova. The King of Babel falls in love with the milkman's daughter Tsilya at first sight during a raid - under the shots of "friendly Brownings" firing upward, as it should be in a utopia, because "if you don't shoot in the air, you can kill a person."

In The King, Babel weaves a Jewish thread into the Western literary canon. And here, for the first time, he outlines the map of the future Russian Jewish literature of his own version. In less than four years, he will populate its space with Jewish bandits from Odessa, their “cousins” - Cossacks from Budyonny’s First Cavalry Army and Galician Hasidim, adding to them numerous relatives and neighbors of the boy Babel (as his mother calls him in the story “First Love” "), who survived the pogrom in Nikolaev and reached maturity in Odessa, in the port...

Return to Odessa

Valery Khait → I am not a literary critic, not a researcher, not an expert on Babel’s work. I'm just an attentive (I hope!) reader. Regarding what was stated in the topic, I can only say that in the early 1920s Babel called his future “Odessa Stories” “Jewish.” Why he later abandoned this, I don’t know, I may have my own assumptions, but I am sure that professional researchers have already written and thought about this. As for my personal opinion, for me Isaac Babel is a great Russian and a Jewish writer of the same caliber, writing in Russian. Like, say, Vladimir Zhabotinsky, who wrote in Russian an outstanding novel about Odessa, “The Five.” And I understand that I am invited to participate in this serious conversation solely as the author of the idea of ​​​​establishing the Odessa International Literary Prize named after Isaac Babel.

So about this... Babel wrote in his memoirs about Eduard Bagritsky: “It’s time to leave other people’s cities... it’s time to return home, to Odessa, rent a house in Near Mills, write stories there, grow old...” These dreams were not destined to come true during the writer’s lifetime. Isaac Babel was shot at Lubyanka in January 1940. But his return to his hometown, albeit slowly, is still happening. So, on September 4, 2011, on one of the days of celebrating the next anniversary of Odessa, at the intersection of Richelievskaya and Zhukovsky streets, a monument to Isaac Babel was unveiled (the author of the monument is sculptor Georgy Frangulyan). The monument to Babel was erected just opposite the house on Richelieu Street, where Isaac Emmanuilovich lived with his family.

We sometimes talk about some work of art: “just like in life.” Implying by this some kind of approval. I think it's just the opposite. “Like in life” is not a compliment for art. If art is real, then this does not happen in life. And only, perhaps, in moments of supreme passion does life coincide with art. When love is a passion, then people do things like in books, like in plays. And love-passion is tension of the soul and body, very, so to speak, concentrated. A person, as it were, loses his will and becomes an actor, a player of some higher drama and acts according to its laws, and not according to the laws of life and society. This conflicts with life, hence personal tragedies. By the way, I once watched a wonderful Spanish film “Carmen” by Carlos Saura. So, in this film, at the very end, the plot of the ballet and the plot of the relationship between the choreographer staging this ballet and the dancer coincided. I remember that it was an incredibly strong artistic impression. Catharsis in its purest form. This very essence of art, based on life impressions, but incredibly concentrated, brought to perfection, is present in almost all of Babel’s stories. He created a new reality, an artistic one, and in this sense he was a real creator, and in the most original, high sense of the word.

Boris Minaev → Despite the fact that the Odessa public, represented by the wonderful Valery Khait, the permanent vice-president of the World Club of Odessans, invited me to the jury of the Babel competition, still calling me a “Specialist in Babel’s story” would be a bold exaggeration. Therefore, all my thoughts on this matter, I want to warn you in advance, may repeat someone’s long-established judgments, or they may completely miss the mark. So, understanding Babel’s story as part of Jewish literature and even Jewish mentality still seems to me to be a completely wrong message. Babel writes about “Jewish Odessa,” yes, maybe that’s true. For him this is a theme, a material, a texture. But nevertheless, it is impossible to consider him a Jewish writer. And it’s not just a matter of language, Jewish literature in general is developing in a very complex way, and before the Second World War it was one kind of literature, and after the Second World War it was completely different. The point is primarily in the position itself and in Babel’s artistic method.

His Jews, in short, are not really Jews. The optical illusion is that they look like Jews, smell like Jews, talk like Jews, are described with diabolical precision, in brilliant detail, but written from a human perspective from outside. From an external position. Benya Krik and other raiders, dressed in Babel's stories in crimson vests, orange suits, with iron muscles, coldly pouring lead on their enemies - what kind of Jews are these? Of course, the value of his stories from an ethnographic point of view lies precisely in the fact that he described not the monolithic world of a shtetl, but a colorful, rich, complex world of a big city, in which free different Jews live in the unique world of Odessa, in which the Jews got some freedoms that were simply unthinkable for the rest of Europe and for the Russian Empire. But this is written, that’s the most important thing, by a person who, generally speaking, does not feel like a Jew. Here many examples could be given both for and against this version, but I will give only one, here is his description of a Jewish wedding: “The apartments were turned into kitchens...” This is, as it were, Rabelaisianism mixed with physiological disgust, an endless description of excess corporeality , fat, meat, feasts, smells and fumes, in general, all this infinity of material things is, of course, not the “Jewish world”. An important question about the reasons is why the great writer Babel saw it this way and wrote about it this way? Like many then, he suffered because of his Jewishness, because of his hateful belonging to this absolutely closed, hermetic and disappearing world. He wanted to break out of it, and in this sense, the “Jewish hero,” the bandit Benya Krik, is his personal antithesis to “ordinary Jewry.”

And finally, the main reason why he took up this topic at all is purely historical: Babel sincerely, passionately, ardently hated the world of pre-revolutionary Russia, like a real revolutionary. All this Jewish origin, from names and subjects to the general linguistic flavor, is for him just part of “internationalism”, a powerful aesthetic challenge to white ideology, thrown in the face of the White Guards who carried out terrible pogroms against Jews - “Babel’s glove”. In a sense, all these stories, including the “heroism” of Benny Krik, the physical strength of the inhabitants of Moldavanka, their rebellious disposition and stubbornness - all this is his response to pogroms, current and future. No, we are not like that! We are not submissive Jews! We are capable of rebellion and action. We are different.

As for the value of Babel’s stories from the linguistic, stylistic side, their structure in the context of all literature - both Russian and non-Russian... For me personally, it is clear that Babel - like many other Russian writers of his generation - is, oddly enough, a straightforward heir to Leskov and his method. The depiction of mythological people in mythological language comes from there, from Leskov. A little later, the same challenge was accepted, and, probably, even on a more gigantic scale, for example, by Faulkner or, for example, Amadou, García Márquez and others. “Mythological realism” - in our Russian case, it, of course, all comes from Babel. On the other hand, the internal inconsistency of this prose, which I tried to talk about above, led to the fact that the “Jewish theme” began to be seen and heard “according to Babel.” Of course, we will not escape this “brilliant pressure” of Babel, however, we need to realize that many people wrote about the Jewish world in Russia. And they wrote deeper. I will certainly forget someone here, but in my memory of this are the wonderful stories of Margarita Khemlin, and some very bright things by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Dina Rubina, and books by Asar Eppel, Efraim Sevela and many others. Therefore, you can enjoy the structure and language of his stories, but... “without bothering” with this seemingly Jewish melody. It's just a melody, just beautiful, just strong. But not Jewish.

Illustration by Meir Axelrod for the story by I. Babel
"The story of my dovecote." Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center

Inna Lesovaya → Nowadays, when people don’t have enough time for anything, including reading “thick books,” a story can become a leader, overtaking both stories and novels. The story will fit even in the format of a message on a social network. In terms of content and plot, it is often equal to a novel, and bringing it to perfection is much more realistic. For many writers - even very great ones (Sholom Aleichem, Bashevis Singer) - some stories seem to me more significant than their larger works. The story, in fact, has always been popular. Biblical stories - about Sarah and her maid, about the birthright, about the marriage of Jacob - these are, of course, his classic examples.

And what is a Jewish story? A story written by a Jew? A story written about Jews? What makes a story “more” or “less” Jewish? For me, the stories from Babel’s “Cavalry” are more Jewish than his “Odessa Stories.” Why? I don’t know... Maybe the Jewish despair of “Cavalry” is closer to me than the grotesque love of life of “Odessa Stories”? Or is it that in “Cavalry” the Jewish narrator is opposed to a non-Jewish environment, and in “Odessa Stories” the author is one of “his own”? Or something else, deeper and more indefinable?

I remembered one story... I am an artist by profession. One day, a stranger came to take a painting exam in our course. I saw him for the first time. When he laid out his works, for some reason I became terribly excited, although the drawings themselves did not make much of an impression on me. These were unpretentious landscape paintings, sketches of churches, portraits of some semi-rural workers. I didn't understand what was happening. I couldn’t just remain silent and let this guy leave. She followed him and for some unknown reason suddenly asked: “What city are you from?” He was surprised and named the city in which my parents were born and raised. Kamenets-Podolsky. I remember that I even trembled: I had never been to this city at that time.

It’s probably the same with the “Jewish story.” We could, of course, talk about his literary roots. But I think that this is the basis of both modern and classical stories - our Jewish talkativeness, our willingness to tell anyone our biography, lay out our most intimate things, endlessly analyze, “cool” tragic situations with comic details - which, by the way, is why they seem even scarier.

On the bench in our yard, the Jewish old women did not speak, but broadcast. Like prophets. Their clumsy Russian language only enhanced the expression of their speech. Brilliant metaphors emerged from absurd phrases. There were Babels, Zingers, Perets and Agnons here. By the way, Sholem Aleichem directly imitated such a speech. This is how his best works were written. Babel did the same, but not so obviously. And the point is not that they remembered verbatim how some cab driver expressed himself. They understood the principle itself, the technique itself - and could simulate it as much as they wanted.

It’s strange to talk about yourself immediately after mentioning such names, but what to do if each person is his own best object for observation! Once at a literary evening, a reader admired my memory. How did I manage to remember all the expressions and words of Zina or Aunt Musya? I had to disappoint her. I, of course, remembered something - but just a little. But she could answer any question all day long in the style of Aunt Musya or Zina. One of them was not very smart, the other was completely mentally retarded. But God, what storytellers they were!

Of course, everyone drew from the same well. And my beloved Margarita Hemlin, and Asar Eppel. I could name other names - but they are already known to everyone. Eppel, in my opinion, is closer to Babel’s story. Hamlin wrote what is now called a “mini-novel.” But Karine Arutyunova’s stories are written like poetry.

What is the fate of the Jewish story? I think he will live and thrive, but he will become completely different. Jewish geography and demographics changed. The same old women who once spoke on the benches are no longer there. Today's Jewish grandparents speak Russian fluently. And there is much less prophetic inspiration and national pathos in their speech. And their Jewish children and grandchildren, who are lucky enough to have them, often speak Hebrew or English fluently. Well, the more difficult, the more interesting it will be to convey this new originality. Moreover, young people have grown up and take their Jewishness quite seriously.

Fellow Traveler (about a short story, Russian and Jewish)

Valery Shubinsky → Great prose in English and French began with the novel. Great Russian and Jewish (in Yiddish) - with a story (or “story”, which meant a medium-length story). But they started out very differently. The differences are related to the so-called “skaz”.

Two of the three great Jewish prose writers of the 19th century, Sholom Aleichem and Mendele Moikher Sforim, because they wrote in a language that they themselves rarely spoke in everyday life, the language of the common people, used the mask and skaz as an attribute of the mask of a folk talker. The more Yiddish literature moved away from the status of “literature for the people,” the more (as it seems to me and as far as I know) Jewish writers abandoned tale forms.

In Russian literature, the opposite happened: the legitimization and valorization of skaz. It’s not that Zoshchenko was a greater writer than Leskov (I think, on the contrary), but Leskov was not a fringe recognized by his contemporaries, and Zoshchenko was an important bird, to whom he dedicated special resolutions of the Central Committee. What is Zoshchenko - the late Bunin, the aristocrat Bunin writes “The Good Life” and “Cold Autumn”! If we look at the “Russian-Jewish” writers, then Yushkevich, a contemporary of Sholom Aleichem, uses skaz. Babel often resorts to it in “Cavalry,” on non-Jewish material, and in “Odessa Stories” he uses the “author’s” language, without a speech mask. I think this is a characteristic detail. Babel, the author of “Salt,” overcame Tolstoy and Chekhov. Babel, the author of “The King,” overcame Yushkevich and Sholom Aleichem. He gave the “Odessa language” to Bene Krik and Froim Grach, leaving for himself the Maupassantian luxury of descriptions.

The second significant question is the plot, or its fictitiousness. It seems to me that an important divide here in Jewish literature is between the Singer brothers. In Russian literature, the tradition of the “story where nothing happens” dates back to Chekhov, and was picked up by Dobychin in the next generation. In addition to the natural tastes of the mass reader, it was opposed by Serapion’s plot, symbolically associated with Westernism. Babel, in principle, was in the same row. As a singer of “people of strength and action” (and he was one, there is no escape from this, no matter how terrible it sometimes caused him), he could not accept a world where action has no meaning and consequences, and the spoken word is meaningless hangs in the air.

This dispute was, in a sense, removed by Kharms. His prose is always plot-driven, built on action, but this action is filled with mysterious and funny nonsense. But this decision is not forever. And if in Leningrad in the 1960s Viktor Golyavkin or Valery Popov almost accidentally picked up the Kharms tradition, then next to him was Reed Grachev with his Dobynsky tremulous melancholy and young Sergei Wolf with his “Hemingism.” Each writer had to find his own path, and this was extremely fruitful (another thing is that nine-tenths of all the Leningrad prose of that time went into the sand without receiving a continuation, but this is a separate topic). In Moscow at the same time, Shukshin combined the fantastic forms of the twenties with an anecdote story that came from the same place. Then a Moscow women's short story appeared, so different from Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Tatyana Tolstaya, Nina Sadur. Then - a short story from the 1990s, which for me (personally for me!) is marked by the names of Oleg Yuryev, Dmitry Bakin and Lev Usyskin (Yuryev began writing novels in the 2000s; Usyskin, almost the only one who successfully practiced in small forms of skaz, turned to documentaries and “large-format” children’s prose; Bakin fell silent and died).

Nowadays everything is in order with the short story in Russian literature. There are good young authors (Irina Glebova in St. Petersburg, Evgeny Babushkin in Moscow, Maxim Matkovsky in Kyiv). There is a tradition. But even in foreign-language literature (including Jewish), the Russian reader and Russian publisher seem to be greedy for the short form. And I think it has to do with the pace of life. Once upon a time, Pisemsky, criticizing Tolstoy for the excessive thickness of War and Peace, from his point of view, said: the novel should be such that it could be read on a train between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The train then took 14 hours. Now it’s four. This is the average reading time for the average modern novel. The average modern story corresponds in length to the average subway ride: about twenty minutes. Prose is a conversation with a fellow traveler. Ivan Sevastyanovich, Robinson Crusoe, Menachem Mendel. Or with a writer, an invisible travel companion, telling our consciousness about his world in his (our) language.

It could also be a Jewish conversation.

The chairman of the jury, writer Alexander Dmitriev and jury member Valery Khait spoke at the World Club of Odessa residents about how the long list of the Odessa International Literary Prize named after Isaac Babel was compiled.

Let us remind you that the co-founders of the prize are the Odessa Literary Museum, the literary magazine "Rainbow" (Kiev), the literary almanac "Deribasovskaya - Richelievskaya" (Odessa), the Odessa National Scientific Library, the daughter of the writer Lydia Isaakovna Babel (USA). A year ago, 228 authors from 16 countries took part in the first season of the award; Marianna Goncharova (Chernivtsi) became the laureate. This year, 390 authors from 26 countries sent their stories to the competition; the writers' ages ranged from 12 to 75 years.

Alexander Dmitriev, paying tribute to the arrogance of the young 12-year-old talent (“this girl could turn out to be a writer or a journalist!”), noted that, nevertheless, “prose requires a lead backside, but where do teenagers get a lead backside? It’s easier for them to blurt out poetry while running. Prose is the work of wise people. The exception is Lermontov, about whom Tolstoy said something like this: if he had remained alive, we would all have nothing to do. Prose requires life experience and a structured mind. It’s hard to imagine that a prose prose writer will emerge; however, there was such a precedent with Françoise Sagan...”

Alexander Dmitriev

The competition commission announced the list of names of the best authors of the “long list” of 2018, from Odessa - Efim Yaroshevsky, Anatoly Gorbatyuk, Yanina Zheltok, Arkady Khasin.

“The idea was born several years ago, after the opening of the monument to Babel in Odessa. It was like a continuation, development of the project to perpetuate the memory of Isaac Babel, who, in my opinion, is the leader of the Odessa school of writers. Babel is an outstanding writer on a global scale. He has long been one of the ten outstanding writers in the world - there are such calculations. It was very difficult because we had to read a lot, but we managed to do everything, didn’t break anything, and today we are announcing the “long list.” It has 92 people. On June 10, we must select a certain number from these 92 included in the long list. I think when the time comes to choose a shortlist, we will use the already developed skills of remote discussion via Skype. We will send our options and start counting the votes again, because each jury member sends their list and everything comes down to the number of votes, there is, of course, a moment of discussion. Consensus is achieved in difficult situations by voting and re-voting. But everything is decided by the degree of artistry,” - said Valery Khait.

Valery Khait and Alexander Dmitriev

“Seryozha Makhotin is in St. Petersburg, I am in Kyiv, Boris Minaev is in Moscow,” Alexander Dmitriev clarified. - Khait is in Odessa, and Babel’s grandson, Andrei Malaev-Babel, is in Florida, although he also teaches in Russia. Last year, we discussed the “short list,” so to speak, eye to eye. A very serious competition of texts is expected, and the range of opinions will also be serious.”

The three winners will be determined on the eve of the awards ceremony, well, not exactly the day before: the jury plans to meet on July 7 and select the three winners. The ceremony itself will take place on July 12, the birthday of Isaac Babel. A year ago it took place on July 13th. And it is not without reason that there is some data on this matter in the Literary Museum, says Valery Isaakovich. It is quite possible that Babel was born on the 13th.

“But the Odessa International Film Festival opens on July 13, and we are modest people, we do not compete with anyone,” Khait emphasized.

“I’m not one of those people who believe that scandals and intrigues decorate life and lead to fame,” said Dmitriev. - They damage the liver. Of course, they will try to conflict with us. Well, I can’t vouch for everything that buzzes over the waves of the Black Sea, can I? I absolutely trust the team, the jury was formed conscientiously, great people were selected. I'm glad I got the opportunity to get to know these people better."

It is possible that over time, the stories included in the longlist will be posted on the event website even before the award is presented, in order to determine the winner of the Reader's Choice Award through online voting. All over the world, publishers are looking at those authors who are loved primarily by readers, and not by sophisticated writers on the jury. This makes practical sense. This year, most likely, readers will be invited to send their sympathies to someone who made the shortlist. And after the award ceremony, the entire longlist will be posted on the website.

“Of course, Babel created his “Odessa Stories”, looking back at his childhood and the people from his environment,” Khait concluded. - But this was only the real basis of the artistic world he created. If I may say so, not life, but the quintessence of life. Only people who don’t understand anything about literature can say that Babel “glorified bandits.” The laws by which life goes in the world created by the imagination of a true artist differ from real laws. Therefore, I think that all our actions and efforts to perpetuate the memory of an outstanding fellow countryman are something that could not be avoided. There can be no doubt about the correctness of this.”

The shortlist for the Odessa International Literary Prize named after Isaac Babel for 2017 (first season) has been announced. The founder of the award is the World Club of Odessa residents. Co-founders: Odessa Literary Museum, literary magazine "Rainbow" (Kiev), Literary almanac "Deribasovskaya - Richelievskaya" (Odessa), Odessa National Scientific Library, Lydia Isaakovna Babel (daughter of the writer, USA). The prize was established with the aim of identifying and supporting the best examples of modern literary fiction in the genre of short stories (short stories), written in Russian in Ukraine, Russia and other countries of the world. It is awarded annually for the best story (novel) in Russian. However, there are no restrictions for authors of works based on age, citizenship, place of residence and place of publication. Amount of monetary reward Prize: 1st place - 60 thousand UAH, 2nd place - 30 thousand UAH, 3rd place - 15 thousand UAH.

Of the 57 authors included in the Long List (Long List) of the Babel Prize, the following were included in the Short List (Short List):
1. Berdichevskaya Anna (Russia)
2. Birshtein Alexander (Ukraine, Odessa)
3. Bossart Alla (Russia, Israel)
4. Brevis Vitya (Ukraine, Odessa)
5. Volodarsky Alexander (Ukraine, Kyiv)
6. Alexey Gedeonov (Ukraine, Kyiv)
7. Mike Gelprin (USA)
8. Goncharova Marianna (Ukraine, Chernivtsi)
9. Kazakov Valery (Russia)
10. Alexey Kurilko (Ukraine, Kyiv)
11. Matkovsky Maxim (Ukraine, Kyiv)
12. Nikitinsky Yuri (Ukraine, Kyiv)
13. Fedenko Alexander (Russia)
14. Khanzina Valentina (Canada)
15. Shanin Moshe (Russia)

The works of the Prize winners will be translated into Ukrainian.