Aesthetics of Alienation: Reassessment of Early Soviet Cultural Theories

172 Pages·2005·0.961 MB·English

by  Evgeny Dobrenko

Aesthetics of Alienation
Northwestern University Press
Studies in Russian Literature and Theory
Series Editors
Robert Belknap
Caryl Emerson
Gary Saul Morson
William Mills Todd III
Andrew Wachtel
Aesthetics of Alienation
REASSESSMENT OF EARLY SOVIET
CULTURAL THEORIES
Evgeny Dobrenko
Translated from the Russian by Jesse M. Savage
northwestern university press /evanston, illinois
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, Illinois 60208-4170
Copyright © 2005 by Northwestern University Press.
Published 2005. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 0-8101-2025-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dobrenko, E. A. (Evgenii Aleksandrovich)
Aesthetics of alienation : reassessment of early Soviet cultural theories /
Evgeny Dobrenko ; translated from the Russian by Jesse M. Savage.
p. cm.—(Studies in Russian literature and theory)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8101-2025-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Russian literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Socialist
realism in literature. 3. Socialist realism—Soviet Union. 4. Aesthetics,
Russian—20th century. 5. Communism and culture—Soviet Union.
I. Title. II. Series.
PG3026.S58D625 2005
891.709'358'0904—dc22
2005006090
8
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
This book is dedicated to the memory of
Galina Andreevna Belaia (1931–2004)

Anyone in Russia who has left the path
of pure negation has fallen.
—Dmitrii Pisarev

Contents
Translator’s Note xi
Introduction xiii
Chapter One The Academy of Poetry and Russian Society 3
Chapter Two Proletkult: “The Music of Revolution”; or,
Creation Without Creators 10
Chapter Three RAPP: The Aesthetics of Restraint; or,
Worldview as Creation 31
Chapter Four LEF:The Third Factoryas
“New Aesthetic Enterprise” 52
Chapter Five Pereval: “Organic Creativity”; or,
Hands for the Hourglass 75
Chapter Six The “Social Mandate”; or,
Flexion in an InXexible Time 89
Chapter Seven Socialist Realism: The PetriWed Utopia 109
Notes 127
Works Cited 141
Index 149