Platonov Revisited: Past and Present Views on the Land of the Philosophers

This article highlights the most important moments in the disclosure of Platonovʼs oeuvre and in the evolution of its scholarly study since the writerʼs death in 1951. Special attention is paid to the major tendencies in Platonov scholarship – the predominance of politicized readings from the mid-1960s until the late perestroika era, a certain deideologization and an increased interest in philosophical and mythopoetical topics since the late 1980s, and a growing interest in the cultural and historical context(s) of Platonovʼs oeuvre today. The article also serves as an introduction to the present special issue of Russian Literature devoted to the changes in the scholarly study of Platonovʼs oeuvre.