Time in the “Kolyma tales”. 1939 — the year that wasn't there

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyse the treatment of time in the “Kolyma Tales” of Varlam Shalamov: in particular, we investigate “the case of the year 1939”. As a date, as a number the year 1939, the time in which many of the key KT stories are set, a period that is very important within the general structure of the events, is for all practical purposes absent from the narration. This problem, in our view, is part of a more complex issue: Shalamov is portraying time in general and historical time in particular as a biosocial category. The very ability to perceive time and relate to it in KT depends directly on the social status of the character, and (therefore) on their physical state. However, if this social lack of cohesion with time and history is to be noticed by the audience, the very same time and history have to be a noticeable part of the general landscape — as objects of rejection. One of such objects that are present and absent at the same time happens to be the year 1939 — a period that represents, as we believe, the model, “perfect” prison camp year in Shalamov.