Reading Platonov
Philosophy of language and fundamental elements of poetics
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Platonov is considered to be an author who is difficult to comprehend. The Foundation Pit appears to be highly hermetic. This is due to the fact that Platonov’s language is subject to a certain form of sparseness. He creates a specific metalanguage which rather erodes its subject than describes it. This reduction creates a new type of semantic unit which is linked to the former “nullified” content and at the same time has its own meaning, which is more symbolic, abstract and to this extent “philosophical”. Platonov is a philosophical writer, since he avoids philosophising. He does not produce “truth” or “knowledge”, but “doubt”. In this, Platonov belongs to the same tradition as great authors of the 20th century such as Kafka, Joyce and Beckett.
(Osteuropa 8-10/2016, pp. 243–257)