Post-Soviet Literature and the Search for a Russian Identity

237 Pages·2016·1.737 MB·English

by  Boris Noordenbos (auth.)

STUDIES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE AND HISTORY
POST-SOVIET LITERATURE
AND THE SEARCH FOR
A RUSSIAN IDENTITY
Boris Noordenbos
Studies in European Culture and History
Series Editors
Eric     D. Weitz
CUNY Graduate Center
New York ,   New York, USA
Jack   Zipes
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U SA
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raphy, and chronology, the series aims to publish the most interesting and
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Boris   N oordenbos
Post-Soviet Literature
and the Search for a
Russian Identity
Boris   Noordenbos
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Studies in European Culture and History
ISBN 978-1-137-59672-7 ISBN 978-1-137-59363-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59363-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016940619
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For Midas and Hazel

A N T
OTE ON RANSLITERATION
For the spelling of Russian words I rely on the Library of Congress sys-
tem of transliteration. In cases of well-known Russian terms and names
which have been anglicized in a different way, I deviate from this system.
Following the most common English spelling, I refer, for instance, to
Tolstoy (not Tolstoi), Trotsky (not Trotskii), glasnost (instead of glas-
nost’), and Alexander (instead of Aleksandr).
vii

C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
Part I 27
2 The Black Holes of History: Narratives of Cultural Trauma 2 9
3 Post-totalitarian Identity and the Struggle
with Literaturocentrism 5 9
4 Empire of Empty Signs: Russia’s Unsettling Imitations
of “The West” 85
Part II 109
5 Imperial Stiob: The Aesthetics of Chauvinism 111
6 The Return of the Dead: Haunting Traumas and Nostalgic
Dreams 145
ix