Everything Has Already Been Written

In this book, Gerald Janecek provides a comprehensive account of Moscow Conceptualist poetry and performance, arguably the most important development in the arts of the late Soviet period and yet one underappreciated in the West. Such innovative poets as Vsevolod Nekrasov, Lev Rubinstein, and Dmitry Prigov are among the most prominent literary figures of Russia in the 1980s and 1990s, yet they are virtually unknown outside Russia. The same is true of the numerous active Russian performance art groups, especially the pioneering Collective Actions group, led by the brilliantly inventive Andrey Monastyrsky. Everything Has Already Been Written strives to make Moscow Conceptualism more accessible, to break the language barrier and to foster understanding among an international readership by thoroughly discussing a broad range of specific works and theories. Janecek's study is the first comprehensive analysis of Moscow Conceptualist poetry and theory, vital for an understanding of Russian culture in the post-Conceptualist era.