Fazil’ Iskander’s Škol’nyj val’s, or an Encyclopedia of Shame

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to the povest’ Škol’nyj val’s, ili ėnergija styda by Fazil’ Iskander. The author always used Russian language for his poetic and narrative works, but he remained firmly attached to his birthplace Abkhazia, where he set some cycles related to his childhood, to the places and traditions of his native land.The cycle presents an interesting and varied set of episodes linked to the feeling of shame, which is analyzed and presented in its various features through the cases that occurred to the little protagonist. He, now an adult, remembers firsthand the discovery of this emotion and his first attempts to understand and dominate it in a rational way. Here we can also find some indirect comments on Stalin’s totalitarianism, which heavily affected the author’s family life.