The Platonov Festival of Arts treats the work of Andrei Platonov with great respect and trepidation and remains deeply interested in his literary legacy. Every year, the forum invites scholars to discuss the writer’s texts and learn something new about the life and work of the famous Voronezh native.
A meeting dedicated to a new book took place in the conference hall of Voronezh State University. Andrey Platonov’s «The Land of Philosophers»: Problems of Creativity is the tenth volume of the collection.
And at the Andrei Platonov Library, Platonov scholars gathered to reveal those sides of the writer that usually remain in the shadows: his screenplays and dramaturgy. Literary scholars presented the as-yet-unpublished volume Plays and Screenplays. 1935–1941. The new book contains many drafts and only two finished plays: Red Crossing Station and Father’s Voice. The first work is the writer’s only radio play for the theatre. The second, Father’s Voice, is well known to people in Voronezh. The production has been brought to the Platonov Festival of Arts more than once.
To learn new facts from Platonov’s biography for the first time is already a major event, researchers say. The book’s compiler, Ruslan Klementyev, notes:
«There is a lot of unfinished material in the volume, but these are not just lines about something. There are plot lines, scenes, characters. And even if there are only a few pages, it is simply wonderful to read them for the first time.»
Interesting facts were revealed at the meeting. For example, about how Platonov wrote screenplays. The editorial staff required a literary screenplay, but the writer did not separate literary and directorial work in his own mind. «He wrote like a director of action. He was told many times that he should not indicate how to film his characters. He should simply say what they do," says Maria Osipenko, compiler of the volume, citing archival notes.
The new book is planned for release next summer. The Platonov Group of the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences hopes to present it at the Platonov Festival of Arts in 2027.
The reports by the Platonov Group were preceded by a student pantomime performed by philology students of Voronezh State University.
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