21 : Russian Short Prose from the Odd Century. This item is unavailable.21 : Russian Short Prose from the Odd Century

This collection of Russian short stories from the 21st century includes works by famous writers and young talents alike, representing a diversity of generational, gender, ethnic and national identities. Their authors live not only in Russia, but also in Europe and the US. 

Short stories in this volume display a vast spectrum of subgenres, from grotesque absurdist stories to lyrical essays, from realistic narratives to fantastic parables. Taken together, they display rich and complex cultural and intellectual reality of contemporary Russia, in which political, social, and ethnic conflicts of today coexist with themes and characters resonating with classical literature, albeit invariably twisted and transformed in an unpredictable way. Most of texts in this volume appear in English for the first time. 21 may be useful for college courses but will also provide exciting reading for anyone interested in contemporary Russia.

Mark Lipovetsky is Professor of Russian at Columbia University. He is the author of ten monographs and more than a hundred articles. He also coedited more than twenty volumes on various aspects of modern Russian literature and culture, including Charms of the Cynical Reason: The Trickster’s Transformation in Soviet and Post-Soviet Culture (2011), Postmodern Crises: From Lolita to Pussy Riot (2017), 50 Writers: An Anthology of 20th Century Russian Short Stories (coedited with Valentina Brougher and Frank Miller, 2011), and Late and Post-Soviet Russian Literature: A Reader, Volumes I & II (co-edited with Lisa Wakamiya, 2014 & 2015).