Новый старый русский. О творчестве Б. Акунина(New Old Russian. About the Writings of B. Akunin)

Abstract

The name of B. Akunin appeared on the Russian literary market about three years ago. His novel "Azazel" was announced as the first in a "literary project" which aimed at presenting "all genres of the classical criminal novel". The mysterious author managed not only to produce eight novels of this project but also two other novels about Russian provincial life and one about the adventures of a young Englishman in contemporary Russia. The author immediately became a success, and disclosed his real name - Grigory Chkhartishvili, a well-known man of letters, a translator and connoisseur of Japanese language and culture. This may provide an explanation for his literary manner: his novels are out of the ordinary not only as criminal stories with a complicated plot and an ingenious detective to solve the mysteries, but also as works of postmodernistic literature with intertextual connotations and complicated historical and literary associations. It is rather unusual that the author of seemingly entertaining criminal novels should provoke political debates amongst his readers about his political message. The article deals not only with the facts of B.Akunin's literary work and its criticism, but also presents an attempt to analyze his working methods and place him in the context of postsoviet Russian prose.