Arkadij Bartov (Sheynblat)
Born
on 18 Dec., 1940 in Leningrad.
Prose writer, dramatist, essayist.
Member of the Writers' Union
of St.Petersburg, Member of the Russian Pen-centre (Moscow). Member of
International Society of Writers and Painters "Dada Lama Order" (Berlin)
and Member of International Federation of Russian Writers (Munich).
Graduated from Leningrad Politechnical
Institute and Leningrad University.
Worked as a draftsman, a photographer,
a technician, an engineer, a mathematician, was the chief of the Programming
Centre at a Project Institute. In late 80'-ies retired from the institute,
later on worked as a night watchman, a worker, a radio reporter.
In late 80'-ies worked out courses
and delivered lectures on Theory and History of Culture, Philosophy of
Art ("From Modernism to Post- Modernism", "Russian and Western Post-Modernism"),
History of Russian Literature of the 20th century at the University of
Culture, Institute of Psychology, Academy of Theatre, University of Engineering
and Economy, worked as a teacher at a number of schools and colleges.
Started writing in the late
70'-ies. First works were published in "samizdat" in Leningrad, Moscow,
Riga and in emigrant press.
The first publication appeared
in "official" Soviet press in 1985 in the collection of works of those
writers who belonged to Leningrad Underground, -- "The Circle", then in
the magazines of St.Petersburg, Moscow and Riga, such as "Neva", "Aurora",
"Zvezda"("The Star"), "Sobesednik" ("The Interlocutor"), "Kommentarii"
("Commentary"), "Rodnik" ("The Source"), "Novoye Literaturnoye Obozreniye"
(Modern Literary Review), "29", "Tretia Modernisatsia" ("The Third Modernization"),
" Ural" (The Urals") and in some other collections of short stories and
literary almanacs in Russia and abroad.
Prefers small-scale works such
as cycles of miniatures, short stories, clip-novels and sketches to epic
narrative. These compositions are characterised by irony and grotesque
in which heritage of Russian literature classics Gogol and Chekhov is
seen.
Among writers of later period
Russian oberioots (Daniil Harms, Alexander Vvedensky) as well as French
post-structuralists (Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida
and others) exerted a certain influence on writer's creations.
A number of essays and articles
devoted to various trends in modern literature and philosophy of art are
published as well.
His works are included into
"The Anthology of the World Short Stories" (Beograd,1992) the anthology
"Leningrad Samizdat" (Moscow,2003), the anthology of Leningrad underground
writers "Collection" (St.Petersburg, 2004) and the anthology "Russian
Short Story of the 20th Century" (Moscow, 2005).
Seven books are published in
Russia.
Publications in Russian and
in translation appeared in Austria, Germany, the USA, France, Israel,
Yugoslavia and the countries of the Baltic Sea.
Lives in St.Petersburg.