SOURCE: “Pil'nyak: The Fatal Confusion,” in Three Russian Writers and the Irrational: Zamyatin, Pil'nyak, and Bulgakov, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 87–136.

In the following essay, Edward traces the theme of the irrational in Pilnyak's fiction.

I

The examination of a specific theme in the work of several writers calls for an approach which should be both extensive and intensive: extensive, because it must range over a wide field, and therefore precludes the close study of his entire oeuvre which concentration on one author demands; intensive, since detailed discussion is required where the irrational is most fully and characteristically expressed. The problem is one of selection of material. It is fairly easily resolved in the cases of Zamyatin and Bulgakov, as their major works are clearly identifiable, and they are the ones in which our theme is most developed. The difficulty arises with Pil'nyak. He has a lively interest in...