Overview

More than 700 ‘utopian’ novels are published in Russia every year. These utopias – meaning here fantasy fiction, science fiction, space operas or alternative history – do not set out merely to titillate; instead they express very real Russian anxieties: be they territorial right-sizing, loss of imperial status or turning into a ‘colony’ of the West. Contributors to this innovative collection use these narratives to re-examine post-Soviet Russian political culture and identity. Interrogating the intersections of politics, ideologies and fantasies, chapters draw together the highbrow literary mainstream (authors such as Vladimir Sorokin), mass literature for entertainment and individuals who bridge the gap between fiction writers and intellectuals or ideologists (Aleksandr Prokhanov, for example, the editor-in-chief of Russia's far-right newspaper Zavtra). In the process The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia sheds crucial light onto a variety of debates – including the rise of nationalism, right-wing populism, imperial revanchism, the complicated presence of religion in the public sphere, the function of language – and is important reading for anyone interested in the heightened importance of ideas, myths, alternative histories and conspiracy theories in Russia today.

Full Product Details

Author:   Per-Arne Bodin ,  Mikhail Suslov
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   I.B. Tauris
Weight:   0.585kg
ISBN:  

9781788312288

ISBN 10:   1788312287
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   30 August 2018
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: Per-Arne Bodin and Mikhail Suslov PART 1 Chapter 1: Alternative Russian Revolution: Viacheslav Rybakov and Kir Bulychev, Go Koshino Chaper 2: Ressentiment and post-traumatic syndrome in Russian post-Soviet speculative fiction: Two trends, Maria Galina Chapter 3: Telluro-Cosmic Imperial Utopia and Contemporary Russian Art, Maria Engström Chapter 4: Lazarus on the Ark: Heterotopias in the Novels of Vladimir Sharov and Evgenii Vodolazkin, Muireann Maguire PART 2 Chapter 5: Conservative science fiction in contemporary Russian literature and politics, Mikhail Suslov Chapter 6: Othering Russia: Eduard Limonov’s Retrofuturistic (Anti-) Utopia, Andrei Rogatchevski Chapter 7: Religio-political utopia by Iana Zavatskaia, Anastasia V. Mitrofanova Chapter 8: “Respectable Xenophobia:”Science Fiction, Utopia and Conspiracy, Viktor Shnirel’man PART 3 Chapter 9: Church Slavonic in Russian dystopias and utopias, Per-Arne Bodin Chapter 10: Contested Utopias: Language Ideologies in Valerii Votrin’s Logoped, Ingunn Lunde Chapter 11: ‘Londongrad’ as a Linguistic Imaginary: Russophone migrants in the UK in the work of Michael Idov and Andrei Ostalsky, Lara Ryazanova-Clarke PART 4 Chapter 12: ‘Provinces, Piety, and Promotional Putinism: Mapping Aleksandr Prokhanov’s Counter-Utopian Russia’, Edith W. Clowes Chapter 13: Parameters of Space-Time and Degrees of (Un)-Freedom: Dmitry Bykov’s ZhD, Sofya Khagi Chapter 14: The new “norma”: Vladimir Sorokin’s Telluria and post-utopian science fiction, Mark Lipovetsky AFTERWARD: Back to the Future, Forward to the Past? An Afterword on Explorations in Russian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Kåre Johan Mjør, Sanna Turoma SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

Reviews

Suslov and Bodin have assembled a comprehensive guide to some very strange (but very fascinating) worlds. Some of them are frightening to visit, but the book’s readers could not be in better hands. * Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University, USA * Speculative fiction does not just imagine the future of Putin’s Russia – one of its primary tasks is to process the traumatic legacy of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Thus it is not a coincidence, or a trick of marketing, that makes speculative fiction of all sorts (utopian, dystopian, science fiction, fantasy, alt-history, horror) the most widely read literature in Russia today. This volume is a much-needed guide to key authors and trends in post-Soviet utopian writing. * Yvonne H. Howell, Professor of Russian and International Studies, University of Richmond, USA *

Suslov and Bodin have assembled a comprehensive guide to some very strange (but very fascinating) worlds. Some of them are frightening to visit, but the book's readers could not be in better hands. * Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University, USA * Speculative fiction does not just imagine the future of Putin's Russia - one of its primary tasks is to process the traumatic legacy of the Soviet Union's collapse. Thus it is not a coincidence, or a trick of marketing, that makes speculative fiction of all sorts (utopian, dystopian, science fiction, fantasy, alt-history, horror) the most widely read literature in Russia today. This volume is a much-needed guide to key authors and trends in post-Soviet utopian writing. * Yvonne H. Howell, Professor of Russian and International Studies, University of Richmond, USA *

Author Information

Per-Arne Bodin is Professor of Slavic Languages at Stockholm University. Mikhail Suslov is Assistant Professor of Russian History and Politics at University of Copenhagen.

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