Performance as Power and Power as Performance in "Belshazzar's Feasts" by Fazil Iskander

Abstract

1 The story “Belshazzar’s Feasts” (“Piry Valtazara,” BF), chapter five of the three-volume saga Sandro of Chegem (Sandro iz Chegema),1 first saw light in the United States (1979). Not until ten years later was it published in Russia (1988); it was not included in the Novyi mir publication of 1973 passed by the censors, or the separate publication in book form in 1977. Iskander’s brilliant portrayal of Stalin puts BF on the same level as The First Circle (V kruge pervom) by Solzhenitsyn. BF, whose plot revolves around the two main protagonists’ attempts at solving a thirty-year-old puzzle, has intrigued me for perhaps as long a time, and this article is not my first attempt at penetrating its secrets. 3