H.G. Wells in E. Zamyatin’s Reception

The present paper examines E. Zamyatin’s interpretation of H.G. Wells’ literary works. Zamyatin regarded Wells as his artistic predecessor who greatly contributed to the formation of science fiction as a genre combining action-oriented plots with social analyses of consequences of scientific and technological development. In his novel «We» the Russian writer underlines the anti-utopian nature of many novels by H.G. Wells and connects it with the opposition «static nature of utopia - dynamism of antiutopia». Zamyatin’s appraisal of H.G. Well’s realist oeuvres tends to be more guarded. H.G. Wells was read and interpreted as a profoundly national British writer entrenched in the Dickensian tradition who mirrors the peculiarities of English mentality at all levels of his work while being fully aware of his national identity. The myth created about the English writer reflects Zamyatin’s own aesthetic programme of the early 1920s which was further developed in his other articles and lectures of that period.

Keywords

Authors

References