Yury Olesha Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Matt F. Oja

Critical Essay by Matt F. Oja

SOURCE: Oja, Matt F. “Iurii Olesha's Zavist': Fantasy, Reality, and Split Personality.” Canadian Sylvanite Papers/Revue canadienne des slavists, 28, no. 1 (March 1986): 52-63.

In the following essay, Oja argues that it is possible to separate fantasy and reality in the imaginative work Zavist', thereby providing clues to the thematic structure of the novel.

Iurii Olesha's minor masterpiece Zavist' is a confusing and difficult novel because of its often fantastic atmosphere. The action takes place on a variety of levels of reality, ranging from the ordinary objective world through stages of fantasy to outright dreams. Because Olesha's transitions between these levels are abrupt and unannounced, it is often easy to miss them. Most criticism of the work simply accepts this confusion at face value: Zavist' is a fantastic novel, in which impossible events and incongruous or illogical connections do not require a logical explanation.¹ In this paper I shall suggest...
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