Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya
1. Life and work of L.S. Petrushevskaya
2. Drama by L. Petrushevskaya
3. Prose by L. Petrushevskaya
Life and work of L.S. Petrushevskaya
Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya – modern novelist, poet, playwright. She stands in the same honorable rank with such modern writers, like Tatyana Tolstaya, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Victoria Tokareva, Victor Pelevin, Vladimir Makanin... Stands in the same row - and at the same time stands out in its own way, as something, of course, out of this series, not fitting into any rigid framework and not subject to classification.
Born on May 26, 1938 in Moscow, in the family of a professor at Moscow State University. Her childhood was during the difficult, hungry years of the war; she was remembered for her wanderings among relatives, life in an orphanage near Ufa and evacuation. After the war, she returned to Moscow and graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow University. She worked as a correspondent for newspapers and radio, in a publishing house, and since 1972 as editor of the television reference department.
Petrushevskaya began writing early. Literary creativity began with composing poems and scripts for student evenings, without seriously thinking about writing. The first published work was the story “Across the Fields,” which appeared in 1972 in Aurora magazine. From that time on, Petrushevskaya’s prose was not published for more than ten years.
The very first plays were noticed by amateur theaters: the play “Music Lessons” (1973) was staged by R. Viktyuk in 1979, and the one-act “Love” (1974) was almost immediately banned by Yu. Lyubimov at the Taganka Theater in the 1980s. The 1985 performance at the Lenin Komsomol Theater based on the play “Three Girls in Blue” turned out to be successful. It was published only 10 years later, in 1983, in the series “To help amateur artists” (where Vampilov’s works began their journey to the viewer and reader). At the center of the action of Petrushevskaya’s play were two ordinary families- Gavrilovs and Kozlovs, and the most ordinary events unfolded here, which happen everywhere off the stage. And how to evaluate these events is also difficult to answer unequivocally: as in life, it is possible either way. Breakfast, getting ready for work, lunch, TV in the evenings, family quarrels- nothing else seems to happen in the play. “Peeping through a keyhole”, “tape-recorder dramaturgy” - this is how the peculiarities of the work of Petrushevskaya criticism were defined. It seems that the “wrong side of life” shown by the playwright has long been familiar to everyone, but for some reason these everyday recognizable situations and characters evoke acute pity. Perhaps because both they themselves and the author talk about them trustingly and innocently, without making any final assessments and without calling anyone to account. “Her talent is amazingly human,” director O. Efremov said about Petrushevskaya’s work. “She sees and writes modern man at the very depths. She has a sense of history, and her plays have a spirit of catharsis that is often forgotten by our playwrights and theater workers."
Petrushevskaya in "Music Lessons" and subsequent plays ("Three Girls in Blue", 1980; "Colombina's Apartment", 1981; "Moscow Choir", 1988, etc.) artistically explored a process that is important in Russian reality - the deformation of personality under the influence of humiliating for human dignity and living conditions. The notorious everyday life squeezes everything out of Petrushevskaya’s heroes vitality, and in their soul there is no longer any room left for celebration, bright hope, faith in love. “Many artists generally believe that they have no place here,” notes critic N. Agisheva, “and disgustedly rush away from crying children and swearing alcoholics into the open spaces great life. Petrushevskaya remains where people feel bad and ashamed. Her music is there. And its secret is that feeling bad and ashamed, at least sometimes, happens to everyone. That’s why Petrushevskaya writes about each of us.”
Contempt for “philistinism”, “everyday life”, which has been cultivated for decades in Soviet literature, led to the fact that the key concept of home for Russian literature was gradually lost. Playwrights" new wave"we acutely felt this loss, and in addition to Petrushevskaya's plays appeared" an old house" A. Kazantseva, "Look who came!.." and "Rut" by V. Arro, "Threshold" by A. Dudarev. It is worth taking a closer look at some of these plays.
Professional theaters began staging Petrushevskaya's plays in the 1980s. For a long time, the writer had to work “on the table” - the editors could not publish stories and plays about the “shadow sides of life.”
Petrushevskaya’s prose continues her dramaturgy in thematic terms and in use artistic techniques. Her works represent a kind of encyclopedia women's life from youth to old age: “The Adventures of Vera”, “The Story of Clarissa”, “Xenia’s Daughter”, “Country”, “Who Will Answer?”, “Mysticism”, “Hygiene” and many others.
In 1988, the writer’s first book was published, a collection of short stories “Immortal Love”; professional theaters began to stage performances based on her dramatic works - “Cinzano”, “Colombina’s Apartment”, “Three Girls in Blue”, “Moscow Choir”.
Petrushevskaya's dramaturgy and prose give the impression of being realistic, but somehow twilight. Since the late 1990s, the predominance of the unreal has become increasingly obvious in her prose. The synthesis of reality and fantasy becomes the main genre, structural and plot-forming principle in the works of this writer. Notable in this sense is the general title of her book “Where I Was.” Stories from another reality" (2002), and the names of the short stories included in it: "Labyrinth", "There is someone in the house", " New soul”, “Two Kingdoms”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, “Shadow of Life”, “Miracle”, etc. In this collection, reality moves far towards the “kingdom of the dead”, thus refracting the idea of romantic dual worlds, the opposition of “here” and "there" of being. Moreover, L. Petrushevskaya does not strive to give the reader a holistic idea of either reality or the mysterious other world. The solution to the problem of commensurate man with the unknown “kingdom”, their mutual permeability comes to the fore: it turns out that the transcendental and infernal have not just penetrated into our real world- proximity to dark people mystical powers, terrifying and at the same time alluring, is completely organic, legitimate and for some reason not even surprising. Petrushevskaya never makes a distinction between the heavenly world and the earthly world, moreover, between the fabulous, archaic world and the civilized world. In her prose, everything transcendental is written on the same street and even in the same apartment in which everyday life lives. But not only the mysterious and otherworldly penetrates into “our” world, on the contrary, even more often the person himself penetrates from “this” world into “that”, infernal, inexplicable, frightening.
In 1990, the cycle “Songs” was written Eastern Slavs", in 1992 - the story "Time is Night", which won the Booker Prize. Lyudmila Petrushevskaya also writes fairy tales for both adults and children: "Once upon a time there was an alarm clock", "Well, mother, well!" - "Fairy tales told to children " and others. A number of cartoons were produced based on the scripts of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya.
She wrote the scripts animated films“Hedgehog in the Fog”, “Tale of Tales”, cycles “Fairy Tales for the Whole Family”, “Wild Animal Tales”, plays “Two Windows”, “Suitcase of Nonsense”, the famous “Tale of Tales” by Yuri Norshtein, as well as “Stolen Sun” , “Bunny Tail”, “The Cat Who Could Sing”. and etc.
Books by this author do not sit on the shelves, be it fairy tales or realistic prose. After all, they were created by the Master’s pen. Lyudmila Petrushevskaya is recognized as a classic of modern Russian literature, although her first book was published only in the late 1980s. She is one of the best playwrights of the past century.
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya is a “drawing writer.” Her personal exhibitions were held in Literary Museum, joint exhibition with Yuri Norshtein and Francesca Yarbusova - in Tretyakov Gallery, in the Art Gallery.
Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya is an academician of the Bavarian Academy of Arts, laureate of the Poushkin-prize (Topfer Foundation, Hamburg), the Dovlatov Prize and other awards.
Currently, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya lives and works in Moscow.
2. Drama by L. Petrushevskaya
The action of Petrushevskaya’s plays takes place in ordinary, easily recognizable circumstances: in a country house (“Three Girls in Blue,” 1980), on a staircase (“Staircase,” 1974), etc. The personalities of the heroines are revealed during the exhausting struggle for existence that they wage in cruel life situations. Petrushevskaya makes visible the absurdity of everyday life, and this determines the ambiguity of the characters of her characters. In this sense, the thematically related plays “Cinzano” (1973) and “Smirnova’s Birthday” (1977), as well as the play "Music lessons".
Ivanov, the partner of thirty-eight-year-old Granya, returns from prison to the Gavrilovs’ sparsely furnished apartment. He says that he wants to see his recently born daughter Galya and live in peace. family life. The Gavrilovs don’t believe him. Particularly uncompromisingly opposed to the drunkard Ivanov eldest daughter Grani, eighteen-year-old Nina. She was forced to leave school, now works in a grocery store and babysits little Galya. Despite Nina's dissatisfaction and the admonitions of her curious neighbor Anna Stepanovna, Granya decides to let Ivanov in.
The only son Nikolai returns from the army to the apartment of the Kozlovs’ wealthy neighbors. The parents are happy about their son's return. The father demands that his son play something on the piano, and complains that he never finished music school, despite all the efforts of his parents, who spared nothing for him. The joy is darkened by the fact that Nikolai brought Nadya with him, who causes open hostility from Fyodor Ivanovich’s father and grandmother. Mother, Taisiya Petrovna, behaves with emphasized courtesy. Nadya works as a painter and lives in a hostel. She smokes, drinks wine, stays overnight in Nikolai’s room, acts independently and does not try to please the groom’s parents. The Kozlovs are sure that Nadya is laying claim to their living space. The next day, Nadya leaves without saying goodbye. Nikolai rushes after her to the hostel, but she declares that he is not suitable for her.
Nina does not want to live in the same apartment with the drunkard Ivanov. All day she stands on the street at the entrance. Here Nikolai, who was once teased as her fiancé, sees her. Nikolai is indifferent to Nina. Hoping to get her son away from Nadya, Taisiya Petrovna invites Nina to visit and offers to stay. Nina is glad to not have to return home. When Grane Kozlova came to pick up her daughter, she explains that the girl will be better off with them and asks her not to come again.
Three months later, Granya appears again in the Kozlovs’ apartment: she needs to go to the hospital for an abortion, but there is no one to leave little Galya with. Ivanov drinks. Granya leaves the child to Nina. By this time, the Kozlovs had already realized that Nikolai was living with Nina out of boredom. They want to get rid of Nina and reproach her with their good deeds. Seeing Galya, the Kozlovs finally decide to send Nina home. But at this moment Nadya appears. It is difficult to recognize her: she is pregnant and looks very bad. Instantly getting her bearings, Taisiya Petrovna announces to Nadya that Nikolai has already married, and presents Galya as his child. Nadya leaves. Nina hears this conversation.
Frightened by Nadya's unexpected appearance, the Kozlovs demand that Nikolai urgently marry Nina. It turns out that he knows about Nadya’s pregnancy and that she tried to poison herself. Nikolai refuses to marry Nina, but his parents are not far behind. They also persuade Nina, explain to her: it is important to take the man on a leash, give birth to his child, and then he will get used to the place and will not go anywhere - he will watch football on TV, occasionally drink beer or play dominoes. After listening to all this, Nina goes home, leaving the things the Kozlovs gave her. The parents are afraid that Nikolai will now marry Nadya. But the son makes it clear: before, perhaps, he would have married Nadya, but now the relationship with her turned out to be too serious and he does not want to “get involved in this matter.” Having calmed down, the Kozlovs sit down to watch hockey. The grandmother goes to live with another daughter.
A swing is swinging above the darkened stage, on which Nina and Nadya are sitting. “If you don’t pay attention to them, they will fall behind,” Taisiya Petrovna advises animatedly. Nikolay pushes away the approaching swing with his feet.
In the finale of “Music Lessons,” the characters are completely transformed into their antipodes: the romantically in love Nikolai turns out to be a cynic, the broken Nadya turns out to be a woman capable of deep feeling, the good-natured Kozlovs turn out to be primitive and cruel people.
The dialogues in most of Petrushevskaya’s plays are structured in such a way that each subsequent remark often changes the meaning of the previous one. According to the critic M. Turovskaya, “Modern everyday speech... has been condensed to the level of a literary phenomenon. Vocabulary makes it possible to look into a character’s biography, determine his social affiliation and personality.”.
One of Petrushevskaya’s most famous plays is "Three girls in blue."
Three women “over thirty” live in the summer with their young sons in the country. Svetlana, Tatyana and Ira - second cousins, they are raising their children alone (although Tatyana, the only one of them, has a husband). The women quarrel, figuring out who owns half of the dacha, whose son is the offender, and whose son is the offended... Svetlana and Tatyana live in the dacha for free, but in their half the ceiling is leaking. Ira rents a room from Fedorovna, the owner of the second half of the dacha. But she is forbidden to use the sisters' toilet.
Ira meets her neighbor Nikolai Ivanovich. He takes care of her, admires her, calling her a beauty queen. As a sign of the seriousness of his feelings, he organizes the construction of a toilet for Ira.
Ira lives in Moscow with her mother, who constantly listens to her own illnesses and reproaches her daughter for leading the wrong lifestyle. When Ira was fifteen years old, she ran away to spend the night at train stations, and even now, having arrived home with a sick five-year-old Pavlik, she leaves the child with her mother and quietly goes to Nikolai Ivanovich. Nikolai Ivanovich is touched by Ira’s story about her youth: he also has a fifteen-year-old daughter whom he adores.
Believing in Nikolai Ivanovich’s love, which he speaks so beautifully about, Ira follows him to Koktebel, where her lover is vacationing with his family. In Koktebel, Nikolai Ivanovich’s attitude towards Ira changes: she annoys him with her devotion, from time to time he demands the keys to her room in order to have privacy with his wife. Soon Nikolai Ivanovich's daughter finds out about Ira. Unable to withstand his daughter’s hysteria, Nikolai Ivanovich drives away his annoying mistress. He offers her money, but Ira refuses.
Over the phone, Ira tells her mother that she lives at the dacha, but cannot come for Pavlik because the road has washed out. During one of the calls, the mother reports that she is urgently going to the hospital and leaving Pavlik at home alone. Calling back a few minutes later, Ira realizes that her mother did not deceive her: the child is alone at home, he has no food. At the Simferopol airport, Ira sells her raincoat and on her knees begs the airport duty officer to help her fly to Moscow.
In Ira’s absence, Svetlana and Tatyana occupy her country room. They are determined because during the rain half of them were completely flooded and it became impossible to live there. The sisters quarrel again over raising their sons. Svetlana doesn’t want her Maxim to grow up to be a wimp and die as early as his father. Suddenly Ira appears with Pavlik. She says that her mother was admitted to the hospital with a strangulated hernia, that Pavlik was left alone at home, and she miraculously managed to fly out of Simferopol. Svetlana and Tatyana announce to Ira that they will now live in her room. To their surprise, Ira does not object. She hopes for help from her sisters: she has no one else to count on. Tatyana declares that now they will take turns buying food and cooking, and Maxim will have to stop fighting. “There are two of us now!” - she says to Svetlana.
The inner wealth of her main characters, warring relatives, lies in the fact that they are able to live in spite of circumstances, at the behest of their hearts.
Petrushevskaya shows in her works how any life situation can turn into its own opposite. Therefore, surreal elements appear natural, breaking through the realistic dramatic fabric. This is what happens in a one-act play "Andante" (1975), which tells about the painful coexistence of the wife and mistress of a diplomat. The names of the heroines - Buldi and Au - are as absurd as their monologues. In the play Columbine's Apartment (1981), surrealism is a plot-forming principle.
Born on May 26, 1938 in Moscow. Her grandfather was a famous linguist, professor of oriental studies Nikolai Yakovlev (1892-1974).
The family of the future writer was subjected to repression during the Great Patriotic War she lived with relatives, after the war - in an orphanage near Ufa. Later she moved to Moscow, where she graduated from school.
She worked as a correspondent for Moscow newspapers and as an employee of publishing houses.
Since 1972 she has been an editor at the Central Television Studio.
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya wrote her first story, “Such a Girl,” in 1968 (published 20 years later in the magazine “Ogonyok”).
In 1972, her stories “The Story of Clarissa” and “The Storyteller” were published in Aurora magazine. In 1974, the stories “Nets and Traps” and “Across the Fields” were published in the same publication.
In 1977, Petrushevskaya was admitted to the USSR Writers' Union, but her works were rarely published. By 1988, seven short stories, a children's play "Two Windows" and several fairy tales had been published.
Petrushevskaya's first plays were noticed by amateur theaters. The play “Music Lessons” (1973) was staged by Roman Viktyuk in 1979 at the Moscow State University Student Theater and was soon banned. The play “Cinzano” was staged by the Gaudeamus Theater in Lviv.
Professional theaters began staging Petrushevskaya's plays in the 1980s. The one-act play “Love” was released at the Taganka Theater, “Colombina’s Apartment” was staged at Sovremennik, and “Moscow Choir” was staged at the Moscow Art Theater.
Since the 1980s, collections of her plays and prose began to be published: “Immortal Love: Stories” (1988), “Songs of the 20th Century: Plays” (1988), “Three Girls in Blue: Plays” (1989), “On the Road of God Eros: Prose" (1993), "Secrets of the House: Stories and Stories" (1995), "House of Girls: Stories and Stories" (1998).
Petrushevskaya's stories and plays have been translated into many languages of the world, her dramatic works staged in Russia and abroad. In 2017, she presented her new books “Wanderings about Death” and “Nobody Needs. Free”, as well as the collection “About our cool life. Stee-hee-hee.”
In 2018, her novel “We were Stolen. History of Crimes" was included in the long list of the "Big Book" award. The story “The Little Girl from Metropolis” is shortlisted for the US Critics Union Award.
In 2018, the writer’s books “Magic Stories. New Adventures of Elena the Beautiful" and "Magic Stories. Testament of an old monk.
A number of films and film-performances were staged based on Petrushevskaya’s scripts: “Love” (1997), “Date” (2000), “Moscow Choir” (2009), etc.
The animated film “Tale of Tales,” based on a joint script by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya and Yuri Norshtein, was recognized as the best animated film of all time according to the results of an international survey conducted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts in collaboration with ASIFA-Hollywood (Los Angeles, USA).
Based on Petrushevskaya’s scripts, the cartoons “Lamzi-tyri-bondi, evil wizard"(1976), "Stolen Sun" (1978), "Bunny Tail" (1984), "The Cat Who Could Sing" (1988), "Where the Animals Go (from the anthology "Merry Carousel No. 34")" (2012) .
Since 2008, the writer has also performed as a singer with the program “Cabaret of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya” with her orchestra “Kerosin”.
In 2010, Petrushevskaya presented her first solo album, “Don’t Get Used to the Rain.”
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya can confidently be called one of the outstanding Russian writers of the last century. She is the author of a significant number of stories and children's books; theater plays have been staged and films have been made based on her works. Her work has become a revelation for many: the author quite harshly, and sometimes simply mercilessly, without embellishment, describes all the difficulties of life.
Childhood
Petrushevskaya Lyudmila Stefanovna was born on May 26, 1938 in Moscow. Her parents were well educated people. Mom worked as an editor, dad was a linguist. Petrushevskaya’s grandfather is Nikolai Yakovlev, a Soviet scientist, professor of linguistics.
The writer's childhood passed through difficult war and post-war times, which undoubtedly left its mark on her fate. The girl, fleeing the war, was forced to live with distant relatives, and then was even brought up in one of the orphanages near Ufa.
Having matured, Lyudmila decided to connect her life with journalism. Therefore, after receiving a school certificate, the girl enters Moscow State University, the Faculty of Journalism. She completed her studies in 1961 and got a job as a journalist. After that, Petrushevskaya changed her place of work several times. In the early 70s, she got a job at the Central Television Studio as an editor.
Creative path
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya began writing her first poems in her youth. They were quite simple and light. The poetess herself at that time did not take her work seriously; she did not intend to become a writer. However, talent is not so easy to hide: while studying at the university, Petrushevskaya wrote scripts for various student events. In the mid-60s, the first plays appeared, but for a long time she did not dare to publish them.
Her plays were interesting, vital, and close to many. Therefore, it is not surprising that directors noticed them. Of course, famous theaters they couldn’t take a work by a little-known author for production. But small theaters willingly worked with her works. So, in 1979, the play “Music Lessons” was staged at the R. Viktyuk Theater. And the Lviv theater "Gaudeamus" presented the play "Cinzano" to the audience.
Only after 1980 more attention began to be paid to the work of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya. famous theaters. These were the performances:
- “Love” – Taganka Theater.
- “Columbine’s Apartment” – “Contemporary”.
- "Moscow Choir" - Moscow Art Theater.
- “One Actor Cabaret” – Theater named after. A. Raikin.
It is noteworthy that for a long time Lyudmila Petrushevskaya could not publish. Her stories and plays were not officially banned, but the editors of the publishing houses did not want to accept for publication works with rather heavy content. social topics. And Petrushevskaya wrote exactly them. However, the refusal to publish did not stop the poetess.
Despite the fact that Petrushevskaya wrote books on social topics, poems and verses very easily (just look at her cycle about the lives of women!), she gradually changed her field of activity. The writer became interested in creating children's books and also tried to write romance novels.
In 1984, her new cycle was published - linguistic fairy tales “Battered Pussy”. In 1990-2000, she wrote “The Treatment of Vasily”, “Tales about the ABC”, “Real Fairy Tales”. A little later, “The Book of Princesses” and “The Adventures of Peter the Pig” were published. Several animated films were created based on the tales of Peter the Pig.
The works of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya have been translated into more than 20 languages and are published today in many countries. The last book writer “In the first person. Conversations about the past and the present" was released in 2012. Afterwards, Lyudmila Stefanovna switched to other types of creativity, still continuing to write, but in smaller volumes.
Family
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya was married several times. Little is known about the writer’s first husband - he died, leaving his wife with their little son Kirill. Afterwards, Petrushevskaya married art critic Boris Pavlov. In this marriage two more children were born - son Fedor and daughter Natalya.
A talented person is talented in everything
Petrushevskaya was involved in creating cartoons based on own fairy tales. She founded the animation studio manual labor", in which she spent a lot of time drawing cartoons using modern computer technology.
The writer has another talent - she is interested in painting and even completed professional courses. Petrushevskaya paints paintings and sells them, and donates the proceeds to charitable foundation caring for orphans.
In 1991, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya was under investigation, and was even forced to hide for some time, living abroad. She was accused of insulting President Gorbachev.
It happened like this: the writer sent a letter to the Lithuanian government, her message was translated and published in one of the newspapers. This letter contained statements that were quite unpleasant for the authorities, in particular for Gorbachev. However, the case was closed after Gorbachev was removed from power. Author: Natalya Nevmyvakova
Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya(born May 26, 1938 in Moscow) is a famous Russian writer (prose writer, playwright).
During wartime she lived with relatives, and also in orphanage near Ufa. After the war, she returned to Moscow and graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University (1961). She worked as a correspondent for Moscow newspapers, as an employee of publishing houses, and since 1972 as an editor at the Central Television Studio.
He has been writing stories since the mid-1960s. The first publication is considered to be two stories published in 1972 by the Aurora magazine, although back in November 1971, the tales “Talking Airplane” and “Suitcase of Nonsense” appeared in the Pioneer magazine. Since the mid-1970s, he has also written dramatic works, which immediately attracted the attention of directors with their combination of uncompromising realism and artistic richness. The first productions took place in student theaters: the play “Music Lessons” (written in 1973) was staged in 1979 by Roman Viktyuk at the Moskvorechye House of Culture studio theater, as well as by Vadim Golikov at the Leningrad State University studio theater. Since the 1980s Petrushevskaya’s works moved to professional theaters, starting with the play “Love” (written in 1974), staged by Yuri Lyubimov at the Taganka Theater in 1981-82.
Since 1983, when Petrushevskaya’s first book was published (a collection of plays, jointly with Viktor Slavkin), her works, both prose and dramatic, have been published more and more often, especially during the period of Perestroika and subsequent years. Acuity art material, skillful use of elements of colloquial language, an unusual level of truthfulness in descriptions of everyday life, sometimes paradoxically intertwined with elements of surrealism - everything that aroused suspicion and rejection among the censors and editors of the Brezhnev era - now put Petrushevskaya among the leading figures Russian literature, simultaneously causing heated controversy around her works, at times turning into ideological confrontation.
Subsequently, the controversy subsides, but Petrushevskaya continues to be in demand as a playwright. Performances based on her plays were staged on the stages of the Moscow Art Theater and the St. Petersburg Maly drama theater, theater named after. Lenin Komsomol and many other theaters in Russia and abroad. A number of television plays and animated films were also based on her works, among which Yuri Norshtein’s “Tale of Tales” deserves special mention. Petrushevskaya's books have been translated into English, Italian, German, French and other languages.
The penchant for experimentation does not leave Petrushevskaya throughout creative path. She uses mixed forms of storytelling, invents her own genres (“Linguistic fairy tales”, “Wild animal tales” and other cycles of mini-stories), continues artistic research spoken language, writes poetic works. She also masters other types of art: painting and graphics (many of Petrushevskaya’s books are illustrated with her drawings), and performs song compositions based on her own texts.
The fantastic in the works of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya
Many of Petrushevskaya’s works use different kinds fantastic. The plays often use techniques of surrealism and theater of the absurd (for example, Columbine's Apartment, 1988; Men's Zone, 1992). Elements of mysticism are not uncommon in prose; the writer is particularly interested in the border between life and death, which in her works the characters cross in both directions, moving from our world to the other world (menippea) and vice versa (ghost stories). The largest of Petrushevskaya’s works, the novel “Number One, or In the Gardens of Other Possibilities” (2004) is a complex narrative with the transmigration of souls, a journey to the afterlife and a description of the shamanic practices of a fictional northern people. The writer had used the title “In the Gardens of Other Possibilities” before, denoting sections of the most fantastic works in her publications. Not alien to Petrushevskaya social fiction(“New Robinsons”, 1989; “Hygiene”, 1990) and even adventure (“Charity”, 2009).
Petrushevskaya is also widely known as the author of many fairy tales, everyday and magical, both addressed mainly to children, and suitable, rather, for an adult reader or with an indefinite age addressee.
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya was a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR (since 1977), a member creative council magazine "Dramaturg", editorial board of the magazine "Russian Visa" (since 1992). Member of the Russian PEN Center, academician of the Bavarian Academy of Arts.
Recognized by the Pushkin Prize of the A. Töpfer Foundation (1991), awards from the magazines “October” (1993, 1996, 2000), “ New world"(1995), "Banner" (1996), named after. S. Dovlatov of the Zvezda magazine (1999), the Triumph Prize (2002), the State Prize of Russia (2002), the New Drama Festival Prize (2003).
Lyudmila Stefanovna has three children: two sons and a daughter. Lives in Moscow. Husband, Boris Pavlov, died in 2009.
The biography of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya is given in this article. This is a famous Russian poetess, writer, screenwriter and playwright.
Childhood and youth
You can find out the biography of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya from this article. The Russian writer was born in Moscow in 1938. Her father was an employee. Grandfather was widely known in scientific circles. Nikolai Feofanovich Yakovlev was a famous linguist and specialist in Caucasus. Currently, he is considered one of the founders of writing for a number of peoples of the USSR.
During the Great Patriotic War, Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya lived for some time with relatives and even in an orphanage located near Ufa.
When the war ended, she entered the Faculty of Journalism of the Moscow state university. At the same time, she began working as a correspondent for metropolitan newspapers and collaborating with publishing houses. In 1972, she took up the post of editor at the Central Television Studio.
Creative career
Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya in early age began writing scripts for student parties, poetry and short stories. But at the same time, at that time I had not yet thought about a career as a writer.
In 1972, her first work was published in Aurora magazine. It was a story called “Across the Fields.” After this, Petrushevskaya continued to write, but her stories were no longer published. I had to work at the table for at least ten years. Her works began to be published only after perestroika.
In addition, the heroine of our article worked as a playwright. Her productions were performed in amateur theaters. For example, in 1979, Roman Viktyuk staged her play “Music Lessons” at the theater-judge of the Moskvorechye cultural center. Theater director Vadim Golikov - at the studio theater of Leningrad State University. True, almost immediately after the premiere the production was banned. The play was published only in 1983.
Another one famous production based on its text, entitled “Cinzano”, was staged in Lviv, at the Gaudeamus Theater. Professional theaters began staging Petrushevskaya en masse starting in the 80s. Thus, the audience saw the one-act work “Love” at the Taganka Theater, “Colombina’s Apartment” was released at Sovremennik, and “Moscow Choir” was released at the Moscow Art Theater.
Dissident writer
The biography of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya contains many sad pages. So, for many years she actually had to pee on the table. The editors of thick literary magazines had an unspoken ban on not publishing the writer’s works. The reason for this was that most of her novels and stories were devoted to the so-called shadow sides of the life of Soviet society.
At the same time, Petrushevskaya did not give up. She continued to work, hoping that someday these texts would see the light of day and find their reader. During that period, she created the joke play “Andante,” the dialogue plays “Insulated Box” and “Glass of Water,” and the monologue play “Songs of the 20th Century” (it was this that gave the name to her later collection of dramatic works).
Prose of Petrushevskaya
The prose work of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, in fact, continues her dramaturgy in many thematic plans. It also uses almost the same artistic techniques.
In fact, her works represent a real encyclopedia of women's lives, from youth to old age.
These include the following novels and stories - “The Adventures of Vera”, “The Story of Clarissa”, “Xenia’s Daughter”, “Country”, “Who Will Answer?”, “Mysticism”, “Hygiene”, and many others.
In 1992 she wrote one of her most famous works- the collection “Time is Night”, shortly before this another collection “Songs of the Eastern Slavs” was published.
Interestingly, her work contains many fairy tales for children and adults. Among them it is worth noting “Once upon a time there was an alarm clock”, “Little sorceress”, “A Puppet Novel”, and the collection “Fairy Tales Told to Children”.
Throughout its entire creative career Petrushevskaya lives and works in the Russian capital.
Personal life of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya
Petrushevskaya was married to the head of the Solyanka gallery, Boris Pavlov. He passed away in 2009.
In total, the heroine of our article has three children. The eldest - Kirill Kharatyan was born in 1964. He's a journalist. At one time he worked as deputy editor-in-chief of the Kommersant publishing house, then was one of the leaders of the Moscow News newspaper. Currently works as deputy editor-in-chief of the Vedomosti newspaper.
Petrushevskaya’s second son’s name is He was born in 1976. He is also a journalist, producer, television presenter and artist. The writer's daughter famous musician, one of the founders of the capital's funk band.
Peter the Pig
Not everyone knows, but it was Lyudmila Petrushevskaya who is the author of the meme about Peter the Pig, who is fleeing the country on a red tractor.
It all started when in 2002 the writer published three books at once entitled “Peter the Pig and the Machine,” “Peter the Pig is Coming to Visit,” and “Peter the Pig and the Shop.” 6 years later the film of the same name was filmed animated film. It was after its publication that this character turned into a meme.
He gained fame throughout the country after in 2010, one of the Internet users nicknamed Lein recorded the musical composition “Peter the Pig Eats...”. Soon after this, another user Artem Chizhikov superimposed a bright video sequence from the cartoon of the same name onto the text.
There is one more interesting fact about the writer. According to some versions, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya’s profile served as a prototype for the creation of the title character in Yuri Norshtein’s cartoon “Hedgehog in the Fog.”
This is confirmed by the fact that Petrushevskaya herself, in one of her works, directly describes this episode in exactly this way. At the same time, he describes the appearance of this character differently.
At the same time, it is reliably known that Petrushevskaya became the prototype for the director when creating another cartoon - “The Crane and the Heron”.
"Time is night"
The key work in the biography of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya is the collection of short stories “Time is Night.” It included her various novels and stories, not only new works, but also those already known for a long time.
It is noteworthy that Petrushevskaya’s heroes are ordinary, average people, most of whom each of us can meet every day. They are our work colleagues, they meet every day in the subway, they live next door in the same entrance.
At the same time, it is necessary to think that each of these people is a separate world, an entire Universe, which the author manages to fit into one small work. Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's stories have always been distinguished by their drama, by the fact that they contained a strong emotional charge that some novels could envy.
Most critics today note that Petrushevskaya remains one of the most unusual phenomena in modern Russian literature. It skillfully combines archaic and modern, momentary and eternal.
The story "Chopin and Mendelssohn"
The story "Chopin and Mendelssohn" by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya serves a shining example her bright and unique creativity. Based on it, one can judge her as a unique Russian prose writer.
It surprisingly compares these two composers, and the main character The story begins with a woman who constantly complains that the same annoying music plays behind her wall every evening.