A01=Ayesha Kagal
A01=Natasha Perova
Author_Ayesha Kagal
Author_Natasha Perova
Authorial Level
Category=JBSF
Central Department Store
Chaise Longue
classic Russian literary tradition
contemporary Russian women authors
Decent Meal
Draw Back
Eau De Cologne
Enlightened Attitude
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eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Fairy Tales
feminist literary criticism Russia
Fyodor Sologub
Golden Porch
Gorbachev's liberalizing reforms
Grape Vines
Iron Gate
magico-folkloric narratives
Maya Plisetskaya
Miserable Salary
neorealism analysis
Nina Sadur
Outer Ring Motorway
Pink Man
post-Soviet literature
Russian feminist writing
Russian women's fiction
Screw Threads
sexual power
social alienation themes
Soviet-era taboos
Stalinist Father
Tatyana Tolstaya
Tra La La
Vladimir Makanin
Women's Prose
Young Man
Yury Trifonov
Product details
- ISBN 9780367299637
- Weight: 320g
- Dimensions: 152 x 241mm
- Publication Date: 31 May 2024
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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The selections in this Anthology overturn Soviet-era taboos with a vengeance. First published in the aftermath of Mikhail Gorbachev's liberalizing reforms, these stories revel in the basic commonalities of human experience even as they reassert a peculiarly Russian belief in the spiritual, mystical, and supernatural. They satirize Soviet literary canons while exploring a full gamut of styles, from neorealism to magico-folkloric fantasy. Included in the volume are works by well-known pioneers of the "new women's prose" as well as by less familiar talents. Bold in thematic conception and stylistic experimentation, their stories are socially engaged–in the classic Russian literary tradition–and yet at the same time intensely personal. While many of these writers share a feminist outlook, their perspectives are vastly disparate and often steeped in a peculiarly post-Soviet irony: In one story, for example, a girl with no money and no prospects of earning any turns to prostitution–and fails because of her lack of entrepreneurial talent. Yet common to all are recurrent and interwoven motifs of self-discovery, sexual power, emotional attachment, social alienation, and vulnerability to uncontrollable forces. The ambiguous ways in which these themes are played out reveal much about what has changed and what remains at the core of a complex culture in transition.
Ayesha Kagal is Moscow correspondent for the Times of India. Natasha Perova is editor of the acclaimed Slavic literary journal Glas and lives in Moscow. Helena Goscilo is professor of Slavic languages, literatures, and cultures at the University of Pittsburgh.
