Literature, History and Identity in Post-Soviet Russia, 1991-2006

The Author: Rosalind Marsh is Professor of Russian Studies, University of Bath, UK, and former President of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies. She is the author of Soviet Fiction since Stalin: Science, Politics and Literature (1986), Images of Dictatorship: Stalin in Literature (1989), and History and Literature in Contemporary Russia (1995).

• Contents: An analysis of Russian literary politics in the period 1991-2006 – An exploration of the continuities and discontinuities between writers’ and readers’ approaches to history and historical fiction since the euphoric early days of perestroika – An evaluation of various theoretical approaches to Russian historical fiction: postmodernism, trauma, nostalgia, and the notion of discourse as power – The discussion of new historical controversies in post-Soviet literature, such as the role of the Soviet traitor General Andrei Vlasov, the continuing presence of Lenin’s body in the Mausoleum on Red Square, the fall of the monarchy, and the Soviet nuclear programme – A new emphasis on individual and family history, and a discussion of postmodernist, ‘alternative’ and ‘fantastic’ histories – Renewed discussions of the history and destiny of Russia, as Russians search for a new ‘national idea’ to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of communism – The resurgence of certain long-standing attitudes to history in Russia – Two significant case studies: the changing image of Stalin, and new treatments of the perennial theme of Russia and the West.