The fate of modern man
An examination of ideas of fate, justice and happiness in Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11600978 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Diana Lewis Burgin |
| Year | 1974 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 260-271 |
| Publication date | 1974-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Soviet Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-5859 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09668137408410947 |
| OpenAlex | W1542637067 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
UNLIMITED technological violence', as expressed in the Stalinist labour camp experience, and 'absurd death', symbolized by the disease of cancer-these are the two interrelated givens of modern life with which Solzhenitsyn grapples in Cancer Ward. The author's insistence that violence and death are today the main determinants of a man's 'fate' and 'happiness' constitutes the enormous contemporary appeal of this novel and answers effectively the often cited criticism that Solzhenitsyn's expressive means are 'traditionalist', 'dated' or, simply, 'old-fashioned'. In reading Cancer Ward we are gripped by the fates of the cancer victims with almost a morbid fascination, and we are overwhelmed by the realism of the hero's bitter 'happiness'. Throughout the novel we sense the rightness and timeliness of Solzhenitsyn's interest in the two greatest anxieties of our age. To a greater or lesser degree cancer and technological violence threaten us all. Thus, we are engaged, at times against our will, with the pervasiveness and absurd terror which death and violence portend. The disease of cancer, personified as the Crab that 'loves people' and 'won't let you go till you croak'2 is presented in Cancer Ward as a fateful and fatal Misfortune (in Russian, gore) peculiar to modern man. For reasons largely unknown, and working according to 'its own specifications', cancer, like Bad Luck, chooses its victims arbitrarily and forces them into a 'no-exit' situation which is awesome and terrifying. Cancer
Aesthetics · Appeal · Art · Epistemology · Happiness · HERO · Literature · Luck · Misfortune · Narrative · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Realism · Sociology · Health and Conflict Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
|---|