Reading Questions for Gorky, “Soviet
Literature,” Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth
of Mtsensk, and Pravda, “Chaos
Instead of Music”
- 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”?
- Why
does Gorky
think that the “bourgeoisie has never had any proclivity towards the
creation of culture”? (CR 92)
- Why is
Gorky
critical of the educational system under capitalism? (CR 92)
- 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.”
- What,
according to Gorky,
should be the “principal hero of our books”?
- Why,
according to Gorky,
should the destruction of capitalism lead to different sorts of
relationships between parents and their children? (95)
- Why,
according to Gorky,
should writers in the Soviet state pay more attention to women? (CR 95)
- 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
- How do
you think Shostakovich wants us to feel about Katerina? Are we supposed to
despite her? Pity her? Sympathize with her?
- Would
Gorky have liked Lady Macbeth of
Mtsensk? Why? Why not?
- 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?
- 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.