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Zeev Bar-CellaIsraeli literary scholar, publicist and journalist
Country:
 Israel |
Content:
- Ze'ev Bar-Sella: A Pioneering Literary Scholar and Researcher
- Authorship Controversy of "Quiet Flows the Don"
- Sholokhov's Handwritten Manuscripts
- Proposed True Author
- Authorship of Other Sholokhov Works
- Plagiarism Allegations against Lebedev-Kumach
- Literary Scholarship and Political Activism
Ze'ev Bar-Sella: A Pioneering Literary Scholar and Researcher
Early Life and EducationBorn in Moscow in 1947 to a military family, Ze'ev Bar-Sella (formerly known as Arkady Nikolaevich Naumov) is a Russian-Israeli literary scholar, publicist, and journalist. A distant relative of the Don Ataman (1918) Naumov, Bar-Sella studied at the Philological Faculty of Moscow State University (MSU). In 1973, he emigrated to Israel, where he adopted his current name. He subsequently completed a degree in Slavic studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he resides today.
Authorship Controversy of "Quiet Flows the Don"
Bar-Sella's literary scholarship revolves largely around his analysis of Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "Quiet Flows the Don." Examining the novel's text from its earliest publications, Bar-Sella posits that Sholokhov did not author "Quiet Flows the Don." He cites numerous errors that suggest the text was rewritten from an original that was written in an earlier orthography. Furthermore, Bar-Sella contends that the current version of the novel is a compilation of different revisions, resulting in contradictions, such as the dual eastern Prussian and Galician biographies of the characters in 1914.
Sholokhov's Handwritten Manuscripts
In 2005-2007, upon examining the published handwritten manuscripts of "Quiet Flows the Don," Bar-Sella concluded that they were fabricated by Sholokhov in 1929 solely for a commission investigating plagiarism accusations. This conclusion arises from the fact that the manuscript closely resembles the first separate edition of the novel rather than the original publication in the journal "October."
Proposed True Author
Identifying Viktor Sevsky (Venjamin Krasnushkin), a Don Cossack writer, as the actual author of "Quiet Flows the Don," Bar-Sella provides detailed textual analysis to support his claim.
Authorship of Other Sholokhov Works
Bar-Sella's research extends to other works attributed to Sholokhov. He proposes that for "Tales of the Don" and "Virgin Soil Upturned," there was a corpus of source texts written by an author separate from Sholokhov. Bar-Sella suggests that Sholokhov did not contribute to the published versions but rather served as a titular author. He further theorizes that several different individuals participated in the writing or compilation of Sholokhov's early stories.
Plagiarism Allegations against Lebedev-Kumach
Beyond questions of authorship, Bar-Sella has also engaged in literary debates regarding the authorship of the Soviet song "Holy War." He has identified instances of plagiarism by Vasili Lebedev-Kumach and supports Viktor Suvorov's controversial theory on the beginning of World War II.
Literary Scholarship and Political Activism
As a literary scholar, Bar-Sella has published extensively on the works of Mikhail Bulgakov, Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov, Joseph Brodsky, and Russian and Soviet science fiction. He is an active political publicist in Russian-language Israeli publications.
