Socialist Realism in Central and Eastern European Literatures under Stalin: Institutions, Dynamics, Discourses

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This volume brings together articles written by experts in the literary history of Central and Eastern European literatures. Focused on the export of Socialist Realism into Europe after WWII, the authors look not so much at similarities as at the particularities of each specific national and cultural context. The introduction of the Soviet cultural model was not quite the smooth endeavour that it was intended to be; rather, it was always a work in progress, often born out of a give-and-take with the local authorities, intellectuals and interest groups. Those in charge had to negotiate the precarious terrain of local cultural and political controversies, caught between tradition and innovation in some countries, or, in others, between a sincere interest in the new concept of art and a complete refusal to accept new rules. Paradoxically, among all the different experiences of introducing, importing imposing Socialist Realism in the specific national contexts, the one thing in common is that each case was a response to the local conditions, a process of working through the challenge of inscribing a staunch theory into the daily reality of an unfamiliar country, language and culture.

Reviews

'This volumes transnational mosaic of contributions allows scholars to perceive a new way of thinking about Stalinist culture, as well as the culture it bequeathed in its wake.'
Pavel Khazanov, 'The Russian Review' Volume 77, Issue 4, October 2018 Pages 645-692

Socialist Realism proves a useful resource for graduate students and scholars interested in Eastern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century from various perspectivesliterary, historical, political, cultural and sociologicaland it opens the way for new insights into a troubling era.'
Corina L. Petrescu, 'Hungarian Cultural Studies'. 'e-Journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association', 12 (2019)

This comprehensive and well-organized volume edited by Evgeny Dobrenko and Natalia Jonsson-Skradol is a major new achievement in the study of both a single method by which literature is institutionalized and globalized and its lasting discourses. It is an achievement that builds on the strengths of Dobrenko and Thomas Lahusens Socialist Realism Without Shores, the magisterial Sotsrealisticheskii kanon edited by Dobrenko with Hans Gnther, and A History of Russian Literary Theory and Criticism: The Soviet Age and Beyond edited by Dobrenko with Galin Tihanov, and also enter into an illuminating dialogue with Tihanovs award-winning The Birth and Death of Literary Theory: Regimes of Relevance in Russia and Beyond. This new collection features a skillfully arranged set of twenty detailed and lucid chapters by an international group of scholars Slavonic and East European Review (vol.100, no.1, January 2022); Inessa Medzhibovskaya

Author Bio

Evgeny Dobrenko is Professor of Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Sheffield. Natalia Jonsson-Skradol is a Research Associate at the University of Sheffield.