Russian Postmodernism

Recent decades have been decisive for Russia not only politically but culturally as well. The end of the Cold War has enabled Russia to take part in the global rise and crystallization of postmodernism. This volume investigates the manifestations of this crucial trend in Russian fiction, poetry, art, and spirituality, demonstrating how Russian postmodernism is its own unique entity. It offers a point of departure and valuable guide to an area of contemporary literary-cultural studies insufficiently represented in English-language scholarship. This second edition includes additional essays on the topic and a new introduction examining the most recent developments.

Recent decades have been decisive for Russia not only politically but culturally as well. The end of the Cold War has enabled Russia to take part in the global rise and crystallization of postmodernism. This volume investigates the manifestations of this crucial trend in Russian fiction, poetry, art, and spirituality, demonstrating how Russian postmodernism is its own unique entity. It offers a point of departure and valuable guide to an area of contemporary literary-cultural studies insufficiently represented in English-language scholarship. This second edition includes additional essays on the topic and a new introduction examining the most recent developments.

Preface to the 1st edition
Thomas Epstein

Preface to the 2nd edition: Postmodernism and the Explosive Style of the Twenty-First Century
Mikhail Epstein

Introduction: “New Sectarianism” and the Pleasure Principle in Postmodern Russian Culture
Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover

PART I: THE MAKING OF RUSSIAN POSTMODERNISM

Chapter 1. The Dialectics of Hyper: From Modernism to Postmodernism
Mikhail Epstein

Chapter 2. Postmodernism, Communism, and Sots‑Art
Mikhail Epstein

Chapter 3. Representation of the Other in the Literature of the 1960s
Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover

Chapter 4. Perestroika as a Literary Paradigm Shift
Alexander Genis

PART II: MANIFESTOS OF RUSSIAN POSTMODERNISM

Literary Manifestos
Mikhail Epstein

Chapter 5. Theses on Metarealism and Conceptualism (1983)
Chapter 6. On Olga Sedakova and Lev Rubinshtein (1984)
Chapter 7. What is Metarealism? Facts and Hypotheses (1986)
Chapter 8. What is Metabole? On the Third Trope (1986)
Chapter 9. Like a Corpse in the Desert: On the New Moscow Poetry (1987)
Chapter 10. A Catalogue of New Poetries (1987)

Cultural Manifestos
Mikhail Epstein

Chapter 11. Essayism: An Essay on the Essay (1982)
Chapter 12. The Ecology of Thinking (1982)
Chapter 13. Minimal Religion (1982)
Chapter 14. The Age of Universalism (1983)
Chapter 15. The Paradox of Acceleration (1985)

PART III: SOCIALIST REALISM AND POSTMODERNISM

Chapter 16. Archaic Postmodernism: The Aesthetics of Andrei Sinyavsky
Alexander Genis

Chapter 17. Postmodernism and Socialist Realism: From Sinyavsky to Sorokin
Alexander Genis

Chapter 18. Borders and Metamorphoses: Victor Pelevin in the Context of Post-Soviet Literature
Alexander Genis

PART IV: CONCEPTUALISM

Chapter 19. The New Model of Discourse in Post–Soviet Fiction: Liudmila Petrushevskaia and Tatiana Tolstaia
Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover

Chapter 20. Heterogeneity and the Post-Avant-Garde: The Excremental Poetics of Vladimir Sorokin
Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover

Chapter 21. Emptiness as Technique: Word and Image in Ilya Kabakov
Mikhail Epstein

Chapter 22. The Philosophical Implications of Russian Conceptualism
Mikhail Epstein

PART V: POSTMODERNISM AND SPIRITUALITY

Chapter 23. Post-Atheism:  From Apophatic Theology to “Minimal Religion”
Mikhail Epstein

Chapter 24. Onions and Cabbages: Paradigms of Contemporary Culture
Alexander Genis

Chapter 25. The Charms of Entropy and New Sentimentality
Mikhail Epstein

Conclusion: On the Place of Postmodernism in Postmodernity
Mikhail Epstein

Select Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects