Nina Berberova’s Black Notebook: Diary as a Public Genre

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https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2024-1-470-480

https://elibrary.ru/YGTVUE

Abstract: The article deals with “Black Notebook”, a diary written during the World War II which is inserted into chapter six of the autobiographical text titled “The Italics Are Mine”. It illustrates a form of prevalence of a diary writing which is not spontaneous, but controlled in its intimate dimension. This is the result of the reconstruction aimed at confirming the existential path traced in the autobiography, and oriented on the one hand to record the way in which Berberova focuses on situations and interprets the flow of life; on the other hand, it bears witness to current events through a fragmentary narrative of the progress of the events themselves and the reaction and behavior of the persons involved in them.

Keywords: Nina Berberova, diary, autobiography, memory, Russian emigration.

Information about the author: Patrizia Deotto, PhD in Philology, Professor, State University of Trieste, Department of Legal Sciences, Language, Interpretation and Translation, University of Trieste, Via Filzi 14, 34132 Trieste, Italia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8560-9362

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For citation: Deotto, P. “Nina Berberova’s Black Notebook: Diary as a Public Genre.” Emigrantica. Issue 1: In memory of Oleg Korostelev, ed.-comp. E.R. Ponomarev, sci. ed. E.R. Ponomarev, M. Schruba, ed. M.S. Shchavlinskii, D.V. Zaitsev. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 470–480. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2024-1-470-480 

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Received: December 02, 2021
Approved: May 30, 2022
Date of publication: October 07, 2024

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