NDLI: Utopias of return: notes on (post-)Soviet culture and its frustrated (post-)modernisation

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Dobrenko, Evgeny
Copyright Year	2011
Abstract	This article discusses the role of representative strategies in twentieth-century Russian culture. Just as Russia interacted with Europe in the Marquis de Custine’s time via discourse and representation, in the twentieth century Russia re-entered European consciousness by simulating ‘socialism’. In the post-Soviet era, the nation aspired to be admitted to the ‘European house’ by simulating a ‘market economy’, ‘democracy’, and ‘postmodernism’. But in reality Russia remains the same country as before, torn between the reality of its own helplessness and poverty, and the messianic myth of its own greatness. Post-Soviet culture is a product of Stalinist culture. ‘Russian postmodernism’ was created less by artists, writers, poets, and film makers, than by theorists and critics. At the beginning of the 1990s, a need to describe contemporary Russian culture emerged. In this way, ‘Russian postmodernism’ arose from the desire to ‘sell’ projects in the West—from the simple obligation to describe socialist experience in concrete, transferable terms that Westerners could grasp. The nostalgia experienced by the post-Soviet era creates its own simulated postmodernism, in which the matrices of the construction and functioning of culture cease to be connected with specifically Russian (Soviet) history, and instead reproduce Western models almost exactly. We are facing yet another attempt at radical cultural modernization. If the first attempt (revolutionary culture) was the most original and fruitful, and the second (Stalinist culture, Socialist Realism) was less productive but still original, then the third, post-Soviet, attempt (rich in individuality, but lacking in original ideas or style) is for the moment the least productive and original. If we exclude sots-art (conceptualism) from ‘Russian postmodernism’, there would be nothing left. Clearly, an original cultural model in post-Soviet Russia will not take shape until original strategies for processing the country’s cultural past are developed. In their turn, these strategies can only result from a radical transformation of post-Soviet identity into a new, genuinely Russian one.
Starting Page	159
Ending Page	171
Page Count	13
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09259392
Journal	Studies in East European Thought
Volume Number	63
Issue Number	2
e-ISSN	15730948
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2011-04-27
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Soviet culture Post-Soviet culture Stalinism Socialist realism Russian postmodernism Sots-art Conceptualism Representation History Political Philosophy Political Science Philosophy
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Philosophy Law Cultural Studies Literature and Literary Theory

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Erratum to: Utopias of return: notes on (post-)Soviet culture and its frustrated (post-)modernization

Erratum to: Utopias of return: notes on (post-)Soviet culture and its frustrated (post-)modernization

Ironic imperialism: how Russian patriots are reclaiming postmodernism

Culture, Contexts, and Directions in Russian Post-Soviet Philosophy

Aesthetics in Russia: looking toward the twenty-first century

Continuity and succession in contemporary Russian philosophy

Soviet patriotism in a comparative perspective: a passion for oxymora

Vitality rediscovered: theorizing post-Soviet ethnicity in Russian social sciences

The Irony of Social Realism: Sots-art as an Early Stage of Russian Postmodernism

Utopias of return: notes on (post-)Soviet culture and its frustrated (post-)modernisation

Similar Documents

Erratum to: Utopias of return: notes on (post-)Soviet culture and its frustrated (post-)modernization

Erratum to: Utopias of return: notes on (post-)Soviet culture and its frustrated (post-)modernization

Ironic imperialism: how Russian patriots are reclaiming postmodernism

Culture, Contexts, and Directions in Russian Post-Soviet Philosophy

Aesthetics in Russia: looking toward the twenty-first century

Continuity and succession in contemporary Russian philosophy

Soviet patriotism in a comparative perspective: a passion for oxymora

Vitality rediscovered: theorizing post-Soviet ethnicity in Russian social sciences

The Irony of Social Realism: Sots-art as an Early Stage of Russian Postmodernism

Utopias of return: notes on (post-)Soviet culture and its frustrated (post-)modernisation