Academic Studies Press Late and Post Soviet Russian Literature: A Reader, Vol. II (Cultural Syllabus Series)

The second volume of Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Literature: A Reader treats the literature of the Thaw and Stagnation periods (1954-1986). It includes translations of poetry and prose as well as scholarly texts that provide additional material for discussion. The goal of this volume is to present the range of ideas, creative experiments, and formal innovations that accompanied the social and political changes of the late Soviet era. Together with the introductory essays and biographical notes, the texts collected here will engage all students and interested readers of late Soviet Russian literature. Review "This anthology is an indispensable tool for those who want to understand the convoluted cultural universe of the post-war Soviet Union. Bringing together texts by such diverse authors as Nikita Krushchev and Dmitry Prigov, Vladimir Vysotsky and Yevgeny Yevtushenko (among many others), the anthology presents the last four decades of Soviet culture as a polyphony of contradictory and incompatible voices. Shaped by modernists and traditionalists, formalists and realists, this period emerges as an exciting colorful mosaic of people, ideas, and texts." -- Serguei A. Oushakine, Princeton University "Both volumes provide a valuable addition to courses on late Soviet or post-Soviet literature and culture. They contain comprehensive collections of diverse materials and include texts that were not previously translated into English, in excellent translations and supplemented with footnotes, as well as previously published texts that are less familiar to American students. While both volumes have the same editors and provide new and exciting materials for courses in late Soviet and contemporary Russian culture, they differ substantially in their structure and content. Therefore, they present different advantages and challenges for being a course textbook or supplement ... Because it includes many key authors of the period, it could be used as a stand-alone course reader. Moreover, it contains a good balance of primary and secondary texts that provide additional historical and theoretical context ... Both readers present a compelling collection of materials and well-written introductory essays that might be interesting for a scholar of Russian Studies." -- Irina Anisimova, Miami University of Ohio, The Russian Review no. 76 vol. 2 April 2017 About the Author Mark Lipovetsky is professor of Russian Studies in the department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures and joint faculty member in the Comparative Literature Program at the University of Boulder. He is the author of Paralogies: The Transformations of (Post)Modern Discourse in Russian Culture of the 1920s–2000s (2008) and Charms of Cynical Reason: Tricksters in Soviet and Post-Soviet Culture (2010). Lisa Ryoko Wakamiya is associate professor in the department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at Florida State University. She is the author of Locating Exiled Writers in Contemporary Russian Literature (2009).