Russian writer Andrei Bitov, "whose work, whether elaborate travelogue or intricate novel, was full of insights into his country's history and literature," died December 3, the New York Times reported. He was 81. His death was announced by the Russian chapter of PEN International, which he helped found.
"Bitov is justly considered a founder of Russian postmodernism, a vast and still influential movement, especially in his masterpiece novel Pushkin House, which explores the complex relationship between the author and his hero," said Mikhail Epstein, a friend and the Samuel Candler Dobbs professor of cultural theory and Russian literature at Emory University. "Bitov introduced into Russian literature the most subtle nuances of self-reflective existence, and the multiplicity of narrative frames and points of view. In this respect he can be compared only with Vladimir Nabokov."
Bitov published a short story collection in 1963, and Lessons of Armenia, "a book about his travels to that region, appeared in 1969. (It was one of two travel memoirs published in English in 1992 under the title A Captive of the Caucasus.)," the Times wrote, adding that he "incurred official wrath in 1979 by helping to edit and contributing to the Metropol Literary Almanac, a collection of uncensored poems, stories and other writings, many by well-known authors. It was offered for publication in the West at the same time that it was offered for publication in the Soviet Union, a move that was considered a challenge to authority. (It went unpublished in the Soviet Union.)" Bitov's works also include The Symmetry Teacher and The Monkey Link: A Pilgrimage Novel.
While other writers in this period were being told to leave the country or were doing so on their own, Bitov remained. "For me there was never really any question of leaving, maybe because of my connection with my family, which is strong and complicated," he said. "It surely was not some great patriotic idea. But such things as leaving were dreams, never thoughts."