WE ARE LIVING IN THE SITUATION WHEN LITERATURE IS BECOMING PRIVATE BUSINESS FOR WRITERS AND READERS
The guest of the new issue of the journal «Discussion» is a famous literature critic and scholar. He speculates about modern literature process and literature of Ural region, speaks about devaluation of reading, domestic literature’s commercialization and publishing activity. The department headed by Leonid Bykov has taken part not once in the procedure of nominating candidates for Nobel and Booker’s prizes. The guest of the journal notes that modern Russian literature is not too in demand on the global book market; it is connected, according to his opinion, with general decline of interest to Russian culture. And it is no mere chance that the candidate for Nobel Prize in 2014 the department of UFU has nominated Svetlana Alexievich who writes in Russian language but lives in Byelorussia. It is so prestigious to be nominated to this kind of prize but there is a problem that Russian readers do not consider the critics’ opinion, Leonid Bykov said. The word «critic» resounds only within the world of literature. Out of Writers’ Union borders there is no response.