Abstract
In " Le Charmeur de serpents ", written in 1954, Varlam Chalamov refers to a practice that took place in Siberian camps at the time of the Stalinist purges: that of an educated detainee telling thrilling stories to the camp leaders. This story raises questions about the risks of reading. Literature is both a psychic resource and a marketable skill. But it also raises questions about the ethical nature of the story itself. Shalamov recounts the story of his friend Platonov in a fictional dialogue in which he explicitly shows his moral divergence. What's the point, we might ask, of showing the vain humiliation of his friend ?On a closer reading of the text, however, Shalamov's problem seems to lie less with Platonov's choice to trade in literature for his survival, than with the inner reason he gives himself to justify his action, the guilty naiveté of believing that literature can educate one's tormentors. Literature," says Shalamov, "in trying to charm snakes, is in reality Satan's dupe.
