OSTRACON
Russian literature in Israel
Presented by Alexander Barash
.......................................

 
MAIN PAGE
in Russian

 

ZERKALO
magazine

(in Russian)

 
 

TEXTS
(in Russian)

 

THE ROOF
Literary salon
(in Russian)

 

THE JERUSALEM
POETRY ALMANAC
(in Russian)

 

Links

 
 

e-mail


 
 







 

OSTRACON:
a fragment of clay pottery (Greek) -
an archeological term;
ostracon was used for writing on. 
A couple of millennia ago it used to be
the most common and handy instrument. Thus,
Job was in the habit of scratching his sores with it; 
the defenders of  Massada, just before 
the final attack by the Romans, wrote on it 
the schedule of their suicides; 
IOUs were written on pieces of pottery...

OSTRACON - 10th-8th cent. BCE, in Hebrew

Our site aspires to become such an OSTRACON
to be used for the abovementioned and any other purposes, a virtual  fragment, both of 
modern Russian literature, and of todays life 
in that region of the Eastern Mediterranean which
by many people is called the Holy Land. 

The authors whose names appear in our Collection belong in most part to a certain literary circle, are of Russian extraction and write in Russian, they live in Jerusalem or in Tel Aviv and are connected by bonds of professional interests and personal friendship.
The fact of our being around is reflected "on paper" by the ZERKALO ("Mirror") magazine; 
our place for getting together is Ola Medvedevas literary salon, and our realization in the domain of virtuality is now to be accomplished by OSTRACON.

As to the range of problems to be dealt with, both estethical and personal, a quote from the FAREWELL TO NARCISSUS by Alexander Goldstein (the winner of  the BOOKER and the ANTIBOOKER literary prizes in Russia, 1997) may serve best to express it:

"The purpose is not to celebrate the severance of all ties with the metropolitan tradition; 
what we are talking about is the creation of a new geography of cultural perspective...
The KAVAFIS VARIANT (a term minted by Alexander Barash and myself) announces that the time is approaching when the Russian literary Jerusalem-Tel Aviv will become a new noble gem in the necklace of Mediterranean capitals. And someone cultivating Russian word in Israel will find brethren among those who ply the same trade in Casablanca or in Tangier, in Istanbul, in Tripoli, in Tunis, in Algeria, in Marseilles.
It will be an amazing multilingual community, an unheard-of guild of kindred minds...
The name is more essential than the city... The city of the sad sun, the forever sunset in whose rays the tired desire resides, and the air trembles with barren stoical philology, and there are too many non-encounters for anybody to believe in lasting love. And yet, flashes of passion in the midst of sham and fraud - arent they, too, worth something?.. An author who sees himself first and foremost as a writer of the Mediterranean may be able to preserve that ancient passion..."


 
 

 
Web-design: Ira BARASH

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