Literature in Post-Communist Russia and Eastern Europe: The Russian, Czech and Slovak Fiction of the Changes 1988-98

by Chitnis; Rajendra Anand

• ISBN13: 9780415355575
• ISBN10: 0415355575
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-23
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

This book considers Russian, Czech and Slovak fiction in the late communist and early post-communist periods. It focuses on the most innovative trend to emerge in this period, on those writers who, during and after the collapse of communism, characterized themselves as 'liberators' of literature. It shows how these writers in their fiction and critical work reacted against the politicization of literature by Marxist-Leninist and dissident ideologues, rejecting the conventional perception of literature as moral teacher, and redefining the nature and purpose of writing. The book demonstrates how this quest, enacted in the works of these writers, served for many critics and readers as a metaphor for the wider disorientation and crisis precipitated by the collapse of communism.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
Author's note	ix
Introduction	1	(2)
1 The fiction of the Changes: context and reception	3	(22)
2 Deaths of authors: Venedikt Erofeev, Bohumil Hrabal, Pavel Vilikovský	25	(14)
3 Giving a shape to one's fate: Evgenii Popov, Petr Placak, Peter Pišt'anek	39	(20)
4 Subverting realism: Tat'iana Tolstaia, Dušan Mitana	59	(21)
5 Writing as being: Jiri Kratochvil, Zuzana Brabcová, Daniela Hodrová, Michal Ajvaz, Jáchym Topol	80	(35)
6 Empty words: Vladimir Sorokin, Ján Litvák, Ivan Kolenic	115	(21)
7 Learning to live with emptiness: Viktor Pelevin, Václav Kahuda, Vlado Balla	136	(27)
Conclusion: to speak or not to speak	163	(5)
Notes	168	(11)
Bibliography	179	(11)
Index	190