Utopias: Russian Modernist Texts 1905-1940 (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics S.) - Softcover

Kelly, Catriona

3.92

12 ratings by Goodreads

9780141180816: Utopias: Russian Modernist Texts 1905-1940 (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics S.)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141180811 ISBN 13: 9780141180816

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1999

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The astonishingly diverse range of writing and artwork brought together in this anthology captures a sense of an age when Russia was bristling with visions of the future. These visions were alternately glorious and terrifying. Much of the literature which flourished during the Soviet modernist era concerned itself with that perennial question: how will the future be? While battling with this great unknown, writers sought inspiration in childhood memories, explored new sexual options and turned traditional assumptions about men and women on their head. The result alternates between baldly realistic and boldly experimental writing.

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Review:

The Idea of the Soviet Union, the ideal moment it supposedly represented--especially at its inception-- lingered long in the mind of many (still) respected writers and thinkers. This important collection is of Russian Modernist Texts from between 1905-1940. It shows that the run up to the 1917 Revolution and its long aftermath had Russian society in thrall to contemporary art (sovremennoe iskusstvo) in a way never matched in the West--and it demonstrates how acutely Soviet art interrogated that society.

The Utopian thrust of the avant-garde penetrated deeply into everyday life, especially after 1921 and the formation of the Constructivist movement, dominating architecture, film, poetry, theatre and even furnishings. Whilst all these texts are, in some way, an anticipation or a reaction to 1917, they are all very different in their judgement or silence. They all embody a particular response to startling times that helped produce some truly memorable art.

The Utopias anthology contains the important literary and cultural theorist Mikhail Bakhtin's renowned analysis of "carnival culture"; the film director Sergei Eisenstein on "Milton, Mayakovsky and Montage"; and texts by Mayakovsky himself, Babel, Bulgakov, Nabokov and Pasternak. Also included are many lesser-known writers, also hugely talented, writing brilliantly of the upheaval that rapid social change caused in Russia.

The spectre of 1917 still haunts Utopian thought and this fascinating book show us why. -- Mark Thwaite

Synopsis:

The diverse range of writing brought together in this anthology covers the Soviet Modernist era, when Russia was bristling with visions of the future. While battling this great unknown, writers explored new options and overturned old traditions.

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