French Literature Reviews - 2026
V. Golovanov, Espace et Labyrinthes
History, Politics and Society
Bibliographic reference: V. Golovanov, Espace et Labyrinthes, Verdier, 2013. EAN13: 9782864326625.
Vassili Golovanov, Espace et Labyrinthes
Paris: Verdier, 2012.
EAN 9782864326625.
Price 18.50 EUR.
244 p.
Publisher's overview:
Each of these narratives is a journey originating from a persistently displaced, decentered location: the elusive source of the Volga, the wild expanses of the southern steppes where European Russia loses itself in the meanders of Asian civilizations.
Tuva, one of the former Soviet republics, a land of shamans where beliefs and languages intertwine. Chevengur, the mythical town created by the engineer-writer Platonov near the Caspian Sea, which, as Golovanov writes, made any resignation impossible for him. The improbable spaces of Khlebnikov, the wandering poet. Or, the history of the Priamuchino estate between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, conceived by Bakunin's father and recounted to the new anarchist generation.
These six narratives expand upon the dual inquiry that runs through Vassili Golovanov's writings: the search for the spaces of language and of the earth—both bound together by a secret and complex filiation—and the transmission of what has been to what is to come.
Vassili Golovanov's work belongs to a tradition of travel writing and cultural essayism that investigates the intersections of geography, history, and imaginative literature in the Russian landscape. The texts gathered in Espace et Labyrinthes navigate diverse topographies, including the source of the Volga, the southern steppes, Tuva, the mythical town of Chevengur, the spaces of Khlebnikov, and the Priamuchino estate. Through these varied settings, the narratives expand upon the dual inquiry that runs through Vassili Golovanov's writings: the search for the spaces of language and of the earth, and the transmission of what has been to what is to come. Readers interested in contemporary travel writing and the cultural geography of Eastern Europe may find this volume relevant to their pursuits.