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Postmodern Crises collects previously published and yet unpublished
Mark Lipovetsky's articles on Russian literature and film. Written
in different years, they focus on cultural and aesthetic crises
that, taken together, constitute the postmodern condition of
Russian culture. The reader will find here articles about classic
subversive texts (such as Nabokov's Lolita), performances (Pussy
Riot), and recent, but also subversive, films. Other articles
discuss such authors as Vladimir Sorokin, such sociocultural
discourses as the discourse of scientific intelligentsia;
post-Soviet adaptations of Socialist Realism, and contemporary
trends of "complex" literature, as well as literary characters
turned into cultural tropes (the Strugatsky's progressors). The
book will be interesting for teachers and scholars of contemporary
Russian literature and culture; it can be used both in
undergraduate and graduate courses.
Postmodern Crises collects previously published and yet unpublished
Mark Lipovetsky's articles on Russian literature and film. Written
in different years, they focus on cultural and aesthetic crises
that, taken together, constitute the postmodern condition of
Russian culture. The reader will find here articles about classical
subversive texts (such as Nabokov's Lolita), performances (Pussy
Riot), and recent, but also subversive, films. Other articles
discuss such authors as Vladimir Sorokin, such sociocultural
discourses as the discourse of scientific intelligentsia;
post-Soviet adaptations of Socialist Realism, and contemporary
trends of "complex" literature, as well as literary characters
turned into cultural tropes (the Strugatsky's progressors). The
book will be interesting for teachers and scholars of contemporary
Russian literature and culture; it can be used both in
undergraduate and graduate courses.
The second volume of Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Literature: A
Reader treats the literature of the Thaw and Stagnation periods
(1954-1986). It includes translations of poetry and prose as well
as scholarly texts that provide additional material for discussion.
The goal of this volume is to present the range of ideas, creative
experiments, and formal innovations that accompanied the social and
political changes of the late Soviet era. Together with the
introductory essays and biographical notes, the texts collected
here will engage all students and interested readers of late Soviet
Russian literature.
The second volume of Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Literature: A
Reader treats the literature of the Thaw and Stagnation periods
(1954-1986). It includes translations of poetry and prose as well
as scholarly texts that provide additional material for discussion.
The goal of this volume is to present the range of ideas, creative
experiments, and formal innovations that accompanied the social and
political changes of the late Soviet era. Together with the
introductory essays and biographical notes, the texts collected
here will engage all students and interested readers of late Soviet
Russian literature.
Late- and Post-Soviet Russian Literature: A Reader is an
introduction to the most important works of Russian literature of
the last fifty years. Organized both chronologically and
thematically, it is a structured presentation of significant
cultural developments and literary works intended for wide use in
undergraduate courses on Russian literature and culture. Each
chapter includes a selection of literary texts, excerpts from the
Russian press, and scholarly writings that help to elucidate the
relationship between art, its historical and cultural contexts, and
its reception. Much of the reader's contents will appear in English
translation for the first time. At present, no anthology of late-
and post-Soviet writing exists. Late- and Post-Soviet Russian
Literature: A Reader addresses this absence, and brings university
curricula in Russian literature, culture, history, and area studies
into the twenty-first century.
Late- and Post-Soviet Russian Literature: A Reader is an
introduction to the most important works of Russian literature of
the last fifty years. Organised both chronologically and
thematically, it is a structured presentation of significant
cultural developments and literary works intended for wide use in
undergraduate courses on Russian literature and culture. Each
chapter includes a selection of literary texts, excerpts from the
Russian press, and scholarly writings that help to elucidate the
relationship between art, its historical and cultural contexts, and
its reception. Much of the reader's contents will appear in English
translation for the first time. At present, no anthology of late-
and post-Soviet writing exists. Late- and Post-Soviet Russian
Literature: A Reader addresses this absence, and brings university
curricula in Russian literature, culture, history, and area studies
into the twenty-first century.
Investigating the genesis of the prosecuted "crimes" and implied
sins of the female performing group Pussy Riot, the most famous
Russian feminist collective to date, the essays in Transgressive
Women in Modern Russian and East European Cultures: From the Bad to
Blasphemous examine what constitutes bad social and political
behavior for women in Russia, Poland, and the Balkans, and how and
to what effect female performers, activists, and fictional
characters have indulged in such behavior. The chapters in this
edited collection argue against the popular perceptions of Slavic
cultures as overwhelmingly patriarchal and Slavic women as
complicit in their own repression, contextualizing proto-feminist
and feminist transgressive acts in these cultures. Each essay
offers a close reading of the transgressive texts that women
authored or in which they figured, showing how they navigated,
targeted, and, in some cases, co-opted these obstacles in their bid
for agency and power. Topics include studies of how female
performers in Poland and Russia were licensed to be bad (for
effective comedy and popular/box office appeal), analyses of how
women in film and fiction dare sacrilegious behavior in their
prescribed roles as daughters and mothers, and examples of feminist
political subversion through social activism and performance art.
This collection of Russian short stories from the 21st century
includes works by famous writers and young talents alike,
representing a diversity of generational, gender, ethnic and
national identities. Their authors live not only in Russia, but
also in Europe and the US. Short stories in this volume display a
vast spectrum of subgenres, from grotesque absurdist stories to
lyrical essays, from realistic narratives to fantastic parables.
Taken together, they display rich and complex cultural and
intellectual reality of contemporary Russia, in which political,
social, and ethnic conflicts of today coexist with themes and
characters resonating with classical literature, albeit invariably
twisted and transformed in an unpredictable way. Most of texts in
this volume appear in English for the first time. 21 may be useful
for college courses but will also provide exciting reading for
anyone interested in contemporary Russia.
This is the first comprehensive study of Russian postmodernism in
any language. Mark Lipovetsky takes the reader on a critical tour
of twentieth-century Russian literature to develop a specific
understanding of Russian postmodernism. In the process he takes on
some of the central issues of the critical debate and draws on both
Bakhtinian and chaos theory to develop a conception of postmodern
poetics as a dialogue with chaos. Lipovetsky concludes by placing
Russian literature in the context of this enriched postmodernism.
An appendix with extensive bibliographical notes on contemporary
Russian writers and literary theorists complements the study.
Mark Lipovetsky takes the reader on a critical tour of
twentieth-century Russian literature to develop a specific
understanding of Russian postmodernism (Aksyonov, Bitov, Erofeev,
Pietsukh, Popov, Sokolov, Tolstaya). In the process he takes on
some of the central issues of the critical debate and draws on both
Bakhtinian and chaos theory to develop a conception of postmodern
poetics as a dialogue with chaos. Lipovetsky concludes by placing
Russian literature in the context of this enriched postmodernism.
An appendix with extensive bibliographical notes on contemporary
Russian writers and literary theorists complements the study.
The largest, most comprehensive anthology of its kind, this volume
brings together significant, representative stories from every
decade of the 20th century. It includes the prose of officially
recognized writers and dissidents, both well-known and neglected or
forgotten, plus new authors from the end of the 20th century. The
selections reflect the various literary trends and approaches to
depicting reality in the 20th century: traditional realism,
modernism, socialist realism, and post-modernism. Taken as a whole,
the stories capture every major aspect of Russian life, history and
culture in the 20th century. The rich array of themes and styles
will be of tremendous interest to students and readers who want to
learn about Russia through the engaging genre of the short story.
Investigating the genesis of the prosecuted "crimes" and implied
sins of the female performing group Pussy Riot, the most famous
Russian feminist collective to date, the essays in Transgressive
Women in Modern Russian and East European Cultures: From the Bad to
Blasphemous examine what constitutes bad social and political
behavior for women in Russia, Poland, and the Balkans, and how and
to what effect female performers, activists, and fictional
characters have indulged in such behavior. The chapters in this
edited collection argue against the popular perceptions of Slavic
cultures as overwhelmingly patriarchal and Slavic women as
complicit in their own repression, contextualizing proto-feminist
and feminist transgressive acts in these cultures. Each essay
offers a close reading of the transgressive texts that women
authored or in which they figured, showing how they navigated,
targeted, and, in some cases, co-opted these obstacles in their bid
for agency and power. Topics include studies of how female
performers in Poland and Russia were licensed to be bad (for
effective comedy and popular/box office appeal), analyses of how
women in film and fiction dare sacrilegious behavior in their
prescribed roles as daughters and mothers, and examples of feminist
political subversion through social activism and performance art.
New Russian Drama began its rise at the end of the twentieth
century, following a decline in dramatic writing in Russia that
stemmed back to the 1980s. Authors Beumers and Lipovetsky examine
the representation of violence in these new dramatic works penned
by young Russian playwrights. Performing Violence is the first
English-language study of the consequent boom in drama and why this
new breed of authors were writing fierce plays, whilst previous
generations had preferred poetry and prose. Since 1999 numerous
festivals of new Russian drama have taken place, which have brought
international recognition to such playwrights as the Presnyakov
brothers, Evgeni Grishkovets and Vasili Sigarev. At the same time,
young stage directors and new theatres also emerged. New Russian
Drama is therefore one of a few artistic and cultural phenomena
shaped entirely in the post-Soviet period and this book
investigates the violent portrayal of identity crisis of the
generation as represented by theatre. Reflecting the disappointment
in Yeltsin's democratic reforms and Putin's neo-conservative
politics, the focus is on political and social representations of
violence, its performances and justifications. Performing Violence
seeks a vantage point for the analysis of brutality in post-Soviet
culture. It is a key text for students of theatre, drama, Russian
studies, culture and literature.
The impetus for Charms of the Cynical Reason is the phenomenal and
little-explored popularity of various tricksters flourishing in
official and unofficial Soviet culture, as well as in the
post-soviet era. Mark Lipovetsky interprets this puzzling
phenomenon through analysis of the most remarkable and fascinating
literary and cinematic images of soviet and post-soviet tricksters,
including such "cultural idioms" as Ostap Bender, Buratino, Vasilii
Tyorkin, Shtirlitz, and others. The steadily increasing charisma of
Soviet tricksters from the 1920s to the 2000s is indicative of at
least two fundamental features of both the soviet and post-soviet
societies. First, tricksters refl ect the constant presence of
irresolvable contradictions and yawning gaps within the soviet (as
well as post-soviet) social universe. Secondly, these characters
epitomize the realm of cynical culture thus far unrecognized in
Russian studies. Soviet tricksters present survival in a cynical,
contradictory and inadequate world, not as a necessity, but as a fi
eld for creativity, play, and freedom. Through an analysis of the
representation of tricksters in soviet and post-soviet culture,
Lipovetsky attempts to draw a virtual map of the soviet and
post-soviet cynical reason: to identify its symbols, discourses,
contradictions, and by these means its historical development from
the 1920s to the 2000s.
This collection of Russian short stories from the 21st century
includes works by famous writers and young talents alike,
representing a diversity of generational, gender, ethnic and
national identities. Their authors live not only in Russia, but
also in Europe and the US. Short stories in this volume display a
vast spectrum of subgenres, from grotesque absurdist stories to
lyrical essays, from realistic narratives to fantastic parables.
Taken together, they display rich and complex cultural and
intellectual reality of contemporary Russia, in which political,
social, and ethnic conflicts of today coexist with themes and
characters resonating with classical literature, albeit invariably
twisted and transformed in an unpredictable way. Most of texts in
this volume appear in English for the first time. 21 may be useful
for college courses but will also provide exciting reading for
anyone interested in contemporary Russia.
Russia possesses one of the richest and most admired literatures of
Europe, reaching back to the eleventh century. A History of Russian
Literature provides a comprehensive account of Russian writing from
its earliest origins in the monastic works of Kiev up to the
present day, still rife with the creative experiments of
post-Soviet literary life. The volume proceeds chronologically in
five parts, extending from Kievan Rus' in the 11th century to the
present day. The coverage strikes a balance between extensive
overview and in-depth thematic focus. Parts are organized
thematically in chapters, which a number of keywords that are
important literary concepts that can serve as connecting motifs and
'case studies', in-depth discussions of writers, institutions, and
texts that take the reader up close and personal. Visual material
also underscores the interrelation of the word and image at a
number of points, particularly significant in the medieval period
and twentieth century. The History addresses major continuities and
discontinuities in the history of Russian literature across all
periods, and in particular brings out trans-historical features
that contribute to the notion of a national literature. The
volume's time range has the merit of identifying from the early
modern period a vital set of national stereotypes and popular
folklore about boundaries, space, Holy Russia, and the charismatic
king that offers culturally relevant material to later writers.
This volume delivers a fresh view on a series of key questions
about Russia's literary history, by providing new mappings of
literary history and a narrative that pursues key concepts (rather
more than individual authorial careers). This holistic narrative
underscores the ways in which context and text are densely woven in
Russian literature, and demonstrates that the most exciting way to
understand the canon and the development of tradition is through a
discussion of the interrelation of major and minor figures,
historical events and literary politics, literary theory and
literary innovation.
In the chaos of early-1990s Russia, the wife and stepdaughter of a
paralyzed veteran conceal the Soviet Union's collapse from him in
order to keep him-and his pension-alive until it turns out the
tough old man has other plans. Olga Slavnikova's The Man Who
Couldn't Die tells the story of how two women try to prolong a
life-and the means and meaning of their own lives-by creating a
world that doesn't change, a Soviet Union that never crumbled.
After her stepfather's stroke, Marina hangs Brezhnev's portrait on
the wall, edits the Pravda articles read to him, and uses her media
connections to cobble together entire newscasts of events that
never happened. Meanwhile, her mother, Nina Alexandrovna, can
barely navigate the bewildering new world outside, especially in
comparison to the blunt reality of her uncommunicative husband. As
Marina is caught up in a local election campaign that gets out of
hand, Nina discovers that her husband is conspiring as well-to kill
himself and put an end to the charade. Masterfully translated by
Marian Schwartz, The Man Who Couldn't Die is a darkly playful
vision of the lost Soviet past and the madness of the post-Soviet
world that uses Russia's modern history as a backdrop for an
inquiry into larger metaphysical questions.
In the chaos of early-1990s Russia, the wife and stepdaughter of a
paralyzed veteran conceal the Soviet Union's collapse from him in
order to keep him-and his pension-alive until it turns out the
tough old man has other plans. Olga Slavnikova's The Man Who
Couldn't Die tells the story of how two women try to prolong a
life-and the means and meaning of their own lives-by creating a
world that doesn't change, a Soviet Union that never crumbled.
After her stepfather's stroke, Marina hangs Brezhnev's portrait on
the wall, edits the Pravda articles read to him, and uses her media
connections to cobble together entire newscasts of events that
never happened. Meanwhile, her mother, Nina Alexandrovna, can
barely navigate the bewildering new world outside, especially in
comparison to the blunt reality of her uncommunicative husband. As
Marina is caught up in a local election campaign that gets out of
hand, Nina discovers that her husband is conspiring as well-to kill
himself and put an end to the charade. Masterfully translated by
Marian Schwartz, The Man Who Couldn't Die is a darkly playful
vision of the lost Soviet past and the madness of the post-Soviet
world that uses Russia's modern history as a backdrop for an
inquiry into larger metaphysical questions.
Russian Literature since 1991 is the first comprehensive,
single-volume compendium of modern scholarship on post-Soviet
Russian literature. The volume encompasses broad, complex and
diverse sources of literary material - from ideological and
historical novels to experimental prose and poetry, from nonfiction
to drama. Written by an international team of leading experts on
contemporary Russian literature and culture, it presents a broad
panorama of genres in post-Soviet literature such as postmodernism,
magical historicism, hyper-naturalism (in drama), and the new
lyricism. At the same time, it offers close readings of the most
prominent works published in Russia since the end of the Soviet
regime and elimination of censorship. The collection highlights the
interdisciplinary context of twenty-first-century Russian
literature and can be widely used both for research and teaching by
specialists in and beyond Russian studies, including those in
post-Cold War and post-communist world history, literary theory,
comparative literature and cultural studies.
Russian Literature since 1991 is the first comprehensive,
single-volume compendium of modern scholarship on post-Soviet
Russian literature. The volume encompasses broad, complex and
diverse sources of literary material - from ideological and
historical novels to experimental prose and poetry, from nonfiction
to drama. Written by an international team of leading experts on
contemporary Russian literature and culture, it presents a broad
panorama of genres in post-Soviet literature such as postmodernism,
magical historicism, hyper-naturalism (in drama), and the new
lyricism. At the same time, it offers close readings of the most
prominent works published in Russia since the end of the Soviet
regime and elimination of censorship. The collection highlights the
interdisciplinary context of twenty-first-century Russian
literature and can be widely used both for research and teaching by
specialists in and beyond Russian studies, including those in
post-Cold War and post-communist world history, literary theory,
comparative literature and cultural studies.
A compendium of folkloric, literary, and critical texts that show
how the Russian fairy tale acquired political and historical
meanings during the Soviet era
We were born to make fairy tales come true. As one of Stalinism's
more memorable slogans, this one suggests that the fairy tale
figured in Soviet culture as far more than a category of children's
literature. How much more-and how cannily Russian fairy tales
reflect and interpret Soviet culture, especially in its utopian
ambitions-becomes clear for the first time in Politicizing Magic, a
compendium of folkloric, literary, and critical texts that
demonstrate the degree to which ancient fairy-tale fantasies
acquired political and historical meanings during the catastrophic
twentieth century.
Introducing Western readers to the most representative texts of
Russian folkloric and literary tales, this book documents a rich
exploration of this colorful genre through all periods of Soviet
literary production (1920-1985) by authors with varied political
and aesthetic allegiances. Here are traditional Russian folkloric
tales and transformations of these tales that, adopting the
didacticism of Soviet ideology, proved significant for the official
discourse of Socialist Realism. Here, too, are narratives produced
during the same era that use the fairy-tale paradigm as a
deconstructive device aimed at the very underpinnings of the Soviet
system. The editors' introductory essays acquaint readers with the
fairy-tale paradigm and the permutations it underwent within the
utopian dream of Soviet culture, deftly placing each-from
traditional folklore to fairy tales of Socialist Realism, to
real-life events recast as fairy tales for ironiceffect-in its
literary, historical, and political context.
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