Solzhenitsyn and His Critics : Lecture Delivered at Seoul National University, June 15, 1982

What can be said about Solzhenitsyn that has not already been said by the officers of the Soviet Writers' Union, authors of articles in Commentary magazine, Georg Lukacs, Rosalynn Carter? The literature about him has become enormous. It exists in myriad languages, so many that 30 different romanizations of his name have been counted in languages using the Latin alphabet alone, the result being librarians' nightmares, which are to be regretted, and computer absurdities, which may be less upsetting to those who prefer human beings to machines. Most studies seem to have focused on his belletristic works, their style, structure, plot, and characterization; or his ideas, religious, political, or other; and finally whether he is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing, with thus far a pretty fair edge to those who hold he is a Bad Thing