Synopses & Reviews
Both before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, everyday life and the domestic sphere served as an ideological battleground, simultaneously threatening Stalinist control and challenging traditional Russian gender norms that had been shaken by the Second World War.
The Prose of Life examines how six female authors employed images of daily life to depict women’s experience in Russian culture from the 1960s to the present.
Byt, a term connoting both the everyday and its many petty problems, is an enduring yet neglected theme in Russian literature: its very ordinariness causes many critics to ignore it. Benjamin Sutcliffe’s study is the first sustained examination of how and why everyday life as a literary and philosophical category catalyzed the development of post-Stalinist Russian women’s prose, particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A focus on the representation of everyday life in women’s prose reveals that a first generation of female writers (Natal’ia Baranskaia, Irina Grekova) both legitimated and limited their successors (Liudmila Petrushevskaia, Tat’iana Tolstaia, Liudmila Ulitskaia, and Svetlana Vasilenko) in their choice of literary topics. The Prose of Life traces the development, and intriguing ruptures, of recent Russian women’s prose, becoming a must-read for readers interested in Russian literature and gender studies.
2009 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
Review
“A significant contribution to Slavic women’s studies. Sutcliffe’s nuanced chronological overview is unmatched for this topic, and his excellent close readings yield many valuable insights.”—Natasha Kolchevska, University of New Mexico
Review
“Sutcliffe lifts women’s writing out of a category to which it was long consigned and shows how their works, grounded in everyday life, address larger issues in Soviet and post-Soviet society that transcend the gender divisions within Russian and Soviet literature.”—Adele Barker, University of Arizona
Review
andldquo;Olson and Adonyeva skillfully interweave fieldwork data with historical background, theoretical connections, and interpretation. In-depth and balanced, the book covers a number of important topics: the village life cycle, magic and healing, gossip and consumption of mass media, and womenandrsquo;s relationship to both traditional and popular music.andrdquo;andmdash;Sibelan E. S. Forrester, Swarthmore College
Review
and#147;Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of the most important living Russian writers.and#8221;and#151;Gary Shteyngart, author of
Super Sad True Love StoryReview
and#147;
Ludmila Ulitskaya and the Art of Tolerance serves the dual role of introducing Ulitskaya to an English-language readership and making a major contribution to the growing body of criticism about her fiction and essays.and#8221;and#151;Eliot Borenstein, New York University
Review
and#147;Skomp and Sutcliffe bring us a long way toward contextualizing and understanding the significance of this major Russian writer.and#8221;and#151;Natasha Kolchevska, University of New Mexico
Review
and#147;Impeccably researched and written with conviction, this book is indispensable for anyone interested in Ulitskaya.and#8221;and#151;Helena Goscilo
Review
“Some of the most important literary theory of this century.”—College English
Review
andldquo;Rather than constructing an outsiderandrsquo;s image of the Russian countryside, as has been done countless times before, the authors instead capture the self-images of Russian village women themselves, achieving a nuanced portrait of their multi-layered, self-constructed modern identities.andrdquo;andmdash;
ChoiceReview
andldquo;This work is a good combination of richly contextualized ethnographic descriptions and interpretive analysis. It opens the world of rural Russia to English-speaking readers.andrdquo;andmdash;Mariya Lesiv,
Slavic and Eastern European Journaland#160;Synopsis
The Prose of Life examines how six female authors employed images of daily life to depict women’s experience in Russian culture from the 1960s to the present.
Synopsis
Russian rural women have been depicted as victims of oppressive patriarchy, celebrated as symbols of inherent female strength, and extolled as the original source of a great world culture. Throughout the years of collectivization, industrialization, and World War II, women played major roles in the evolution of the Russian village. But how do they see themselves? What do their stories, songs, and customs reveal about their values, desires, and motivations?
and#160;and#160; and#160;Based upon nearly three decades of fieldwork, from 1983 to 2010, The Worlds of Russian Rural Women follows three generations of Russian women and shows how they alternately preserve, discard, and rework the cultural traditions of their forebears to suit changing needs and self-conceptions. In a major contribution to the study of folklore, Laura J. Olson and Svetlana Adonyeva document the ways that womenandrsquo;s tales of traditional practices associated with marriage, childbirth, and death reflect both upholding and transgression of social norms. Their romance songs, satirical ditties, and healing and harmful magic reveal the complexity of power relations in the Russian villages.
Synopsis
Novelist Ludmila Ulitskaya is a best-selling and critically lauded Russian writer who champions the values of liberalism and tolerance and critiques Putinand#8217;s policies. This is the first English-language book about this important writer, placing her in the shifting landscape of post-Soviet society and culture.
Synopsis
Novelist Ludmila Ulitskaya is a crucial cultural figure in contemporary Russia, garnering both literary awards and best-seller status. Engaging with the past to combat the creeping authoritarianism of the Putin era, she has become the latest in a long line of Russian dissident authors championing the values of liberalism and tolerance while critiquing the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya and the Art of Tolerance is the first English-language book about this influential writer, contextualizing her in the shifting landscape of post-Soviet society and culture.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Drawing on interviews with Ulitskaya and sources not readily available to Western scholars, Elizabeth A. Skomp and Benjamin M. Sutcliffe explore the ethical ideals that make Ulitskayaand#8217;s novels resonate in todayand#8217;s Russiaand#151;tolerance, sincerity, and diversityand#151;and examine how she uses innovative imagery to personalize history through a focus on body and kinship. This is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary Russian literature and society.
Synopsis
The Russian formalists emerged from the Russian Revolution with ideas about the independence of literature. They enjoyed that independence until Stalin shut them down. By then, however, they had produced essays that remain among the best defenses ever written for both literature and its theory.
Included here are four essays representing key points in the formalists short history. Victor Shklovskys pioneering “Art as Technique” (1917) defines the literary as a way to make us see familiar things as if for the first time. His 1921 essay on Tristram Shandy makes that eccentric novel the centerpiece for a theory of narrative. A section from Boris Tomashevskys “Thematics” (1925) inventories the elements of stories. In “The Theory of the ‘Formal Method” (1927), Boris Eichenbaum defends Russian Formalism against various attacks. An able champion, he describes Formalisms evolution, notes its major figures and works, clears away decayed axioms, and rescues literature from “primitive historicism” and other dangers.
These essays set a course for literary studies that led to Prague structuralism, French semiotics, and postmodern poetics. Russian Formalist Criticism has been honored as a Choice Outstanding Academic Book of the Year by the American Library Association.
About the Author
Lee T. Lemon is an emeritus professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the author of several books, including Portraits of the Artist in Contemporary Fiction and Approaches to Literature: A Guide to Thinking and Writing. Marion J. Reis was affiliated with the Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, Illinois. Gary Saul Morson is the author of numerous books, including The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture and “Anna Karenina” in Our Time: Seeing More Wisely.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrationsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Foreword by Helena Gosciloand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Acknowledgmentsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
Introduction: Myths of the Post-Soviet Writerand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
1 Redeeming the Body: Ulitskaya and Corporealityand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
2 Ideas That Bind: Kinship as Metaphorand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
3 An Obsession with History: Ulitskayaand#39;s Intelligentsia Writes the Pastand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
4 Writing Tolerance: Morality and Ulitskayaand#39;s Theology of Inclusionand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Conclusion: Ulitskaya, Intelligentsia, and the Ethics of the Ordinaryand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
Appendix: Major Works by Ulitskaya, 1988andndash;2013and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Notesand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Works Citedand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Index