The Master and Margarita by Katie Brown
It's easy to overlook how drastically the landscape changes in wintertime, the frozen ground and the darkening sky met by sparkling lights as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. While the weather turns bleak, Christmas serves to transport us into a magical realm of fantasy and imagination, lifting us out of the black midwinter and into a life less dark. Even though the most obviously fictional aspects of the festive season are largely reserved for children, the presence of the fantastical imagery associated with it overwhelms our cities, homes and imaginations in December. These exaggerated and outlandish symbols that we welcome into our lives once a year serve to temporarily shield us from the darkest elements of the winter in what would otherwise be the coldest and loneliest months of the year. The parallels between this and the very foundations of magical realism in literature are obvious and abundant, where else would you find a humungous vodka drinking cat with a penchant for pistols and chess thinly veiling as a critique of the hangers on in Stalin's government? As a genre it serves to hide political and cultural criticism behind layers of imagined characters and mazes of symbols, transporting readers beyond their realities and inviting them to view their lives through a wicked and warped lens. The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov proves just how potent magical realism can be as a literary tool during oppressive political times. Enabling him to reimagine and challenge the world and political climate in which was present while freedom of speech is restricted, as was in Stalins USSR.
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Artist: Sanya Kantarovsky
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Born and raised in Kiev he chose to live and work in Russia and had to write directly to Stalin for approval to write his famous book for fear of imprisonment or execution. His fear of the government was so strong he burned many manuscripts, including the first draft of Master and Margarita. He had been on the front line of many wars and suffered unimaginable horrors, barely surviving many of his injuries. When he returned to Russia and found that his writing was still being censored and destroyed by an increasingly authoritarian government, his secret work retreated further into the shadows of magical realism; his hopes and fears for his life, his country and his work masking themselves in ere more hallucinatory forms. Eventually he created this unprecedented satire that was not to be published in his lifetime. By blurring religious reimagining's with characters boiled straight down from satanic folklore including the Behemoth 'werecat', vampires, demons and shapeshifters. He fearlessly mocked and attacked the malicious regime in which he was living - after a covert reading of the novel in front of a small group of friends, it is said they all sat in silence and horror for fear of what would happen to any of them should the book be published in their lifetime. His courage to finally complete the manuscript would be down to the protection that magical realism would provide him, the masquerade allowed him to to truly express himself through his colossal and outlandish characters.
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Elizaveta Porodina, our incredible artist for the month, found an attraction and kinship with the archetype of the witch in the transformation of Margarita into an unapologetically authentic woman as she makes a deal with the devil. Full of dualities and contradictions, she ends the novel with no regrets, we have a realistic representation of a woman who is at peace with the many aspects of her character. Margarita's transformation mirrors the issue society has with the archetype of the witch on a larger scale and the way it has been used to oppress the darkness that naturally coexists in the feminine. Eliza's piece for us this month is an image and a short essay, exploring the intangible magic of femininity and the emancipatory power of embracing both the light and dark within yourself. You can see the outline of a feminine figure, but you cannot see the whole woman. There is a sense of movement and freedom that is central to the work as though soon you will look down and she will no longer be in the picture but instead of dancing through another sky. The accompanying essay on the back delves deeper still.
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Eliza shares her ethic of authenticity with Bulgakov and the firmness of mind to harness her own voice in all of her creative pursuits. Although Bulgakov's final book is an enduring condemnation, it stays in the memory of most who read it as a glorification of freedom and an unforgettable love story. Through the work of our author and our artist this month we are appreciating the presence of the magical in the darkest of times and the ability of the human mind to use creativity to transform our suffering into eternal works of art.
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Artist: Sanya Kantarovsky
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"With years of learning and accepting my role as a creator, I have learned to tune out all the external voices that press to conform, and have been hearing my own, strong inner voice loud and clear - guiding me, showing me the way that is the best for my business, my relationships, my art." - Elizaveta Porodina.