Contemporary Russian Satire
A Genre Study

This is a 1996 study of the extraordinary diversity and range of satirical writing in Russian literature of the 1970s and 1980s.

Karen L. Ryan-Hayes (Author)

9780521026260, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 April 2006

304 pages
21.6 x 13.9 x 1.7 cm, 0.393 kg

"I highly recommend this book for advanced undergraduate courses in Russian and world literature, and also for specialists." Valerie Z. Nollan, The Russian Review

This wide-ranging 1996 study presents an examination of the extraordinary diversity and range of satirical writing in Russian literature and will be of interest not only to Slavicists but also to those interested in genre theory. Through the close analysis of seminal satirical texts written by five Russian and émigré authors in the 1970s and 1980s, Karen Ryan-Hayes demonstrates that formal and thematic parody is pervasive and that it provides additional levels of meaning in contemporary Russian satire. Each work under examination is placed within the wider European literary context as well as within the Russian tradition and is representative of a different sub-genre of satire. The author focuses on a variety of these genres and modes and offers practical criticism on each text. The writers under discussion have enjoyed a positive reception in the West and their works demonstrate the variety and vitality of Russian and Soviet satire.

Acknowledgements
Note on the translation
Introduction
1. Iskander's transparent allegory: Rabbits and Boa Constrictors
2. Beyond picaresque: Erofeev's Moscow-Petushki
3. Satire and the autobiographical mode: Limonov's It's Me, Eddie
4. The family chronicle revisited: Dovlatov's Ours
5. Dystopia redux: Voinovich and Moscow 2042
Conclusions
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]