In an age of renewed barbarism, as heads of state and government carve up the world like mafiosi, Viktor Yerofeyev paints a garishly dazzling panorama of human and political abysses, in which truth becomes a game and morality an attitude. While Putin appears as a “ponchik”—a doughnut fried in oil with a hole in the middle, a symbol of inflated emptiness—the opposition strikes a martyr’s pose. Yerofeyev’s protagonist sets off for “Heavenly Moscow,” a surreal landscape between dream, memory, and farce, where history and the present collide. There, Stalin and Rilke, Tsvetaeva and Merkel meet, and the great Russian classics from Pushkin to Tolstoy appear as witnesses to an endless recurrence of violence. In this alchemical mixture of autobiography, essay, and allegory, the image emerges of a country shattering under the weight of its own lust for myth. The New Barbarism is Yerofeyev’s most radical book: satire, poetry, and a tragicomic declaration of love to a Russia that has lost itself. Through a reading and discussion, we will introduce you to the latest novel and the intellectual world of the Berlin-based Russian author.
Guest: Viktor Yerofeyev
Moderated by Wladimir Velminski.
The event will be held in German and Russian (with translation).
Tickets are €5 (reduced rate €3) and are available only at the box office at the Maschinenhaus.
We look forward to your questions and comments during the event here: Facebook Event
