Reading Questions for Gorky, “Soviet Literature,” Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Pravda, “Chaos Instead of Music”

 

 

  1. By going to a source other than Wikipedia, find a brief reliable biography of Maxim Gorky. How does what you learn about Gorky’s life help you understand his comments on “Soviet Literature”?

 

  1. Why does Gorky think that the “bourgeoisie has never had any proclivity towards the creation of culture”? (CR 92)

 

  1. Why is Gorky critical of the educational system under capitalism? (CR 92)

 

 

  1. Would Gorky believe that you could be a “maker” without also being a “doer”? Find evidence for your answer to the question in his comments on “Soviet Literature.”

 

  1. What, according to Gorky, should be the “principal hero of our books”?

 

  1. Why, according to Gorky, should the destruction of capitalism lead to different sorts of relationships between parents and their children? (95)

 

  1. Why, according to Gorky, should writers in the Soviet state pay more attention to women? (CR 95)

 

  1. What is Gorky proposing when he suggests that the “proletariat state must education thousdands of first class…’engineers of the soul’”? (CR 96)

 

Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

 

  1. How do you think Shostakovich wants us to feel about Katerina? Are we supposed to despite her? Pity her? Sympathize with her?

 

  1. Would Gorky have liked Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk? Why? Why not?

 

  1. In its review of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (“Chaos Instead of Music,” CR 100-1), the official Communist Party newspaper, Pravda, writes that Shostakovich wants us to see the “predatory merchant woman [Katerina]… as some kind of ‘victim’ of bourgeois society.” Do you think she is a victim?

 

  1. What most displeases the Pravda critic about Shostakovich’s opera?

 

I’ll talk about this in the lecture, but the music that accompanies a rape scene is what sends Stalin ‘round the bend. I’ll play this clip in class.