The Last Years of Soviet Russian Literature
Prose Fiction 1975–1991

Provides a comprehensive survey of developments in Russian prose over the last fifteen years of the Soviet regime.

Deming Bronson Brown (Author)

9780521408653, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 September 1994

220 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.3 cm, 0.278 kg

'Professor Brown has carefully digested an impressive number of primary and secondary texts. His critical comments combine a mature scholar's detachment with the informed sympathy of one who has lived with his subject for many years. This survey leaves no doubt that Russian literature is producing writers of interest and stature as ever before.' Victor Terras, Brown University

This is the only book, Russian or Western, that provides a comprehensive survey of developments in Russian prose over the last fifteen years of the Soviet regime. Deming Brown examines the work of established writers, such as Fazil Iskander and Andrei Bitov, together with many new figures who emerged during this period. Special attention is given to the evolving patterns of publication during the period: the rehabilitation of suppressed writers and the first publication of writings that had formerly belonged to the literary underground. This is an excellent introduction, of interest to scholars and students alike, to the varied writings of some eighty contemporary Russian authors, and to trends in literary criticism and publication.

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. The literary situation: publication, genres, criticism
2. From 'stagnation' to 'openness'
3. Retrospective writing about the Stalin period
4. Village prose: its peak and decline
5. The 'forty-year-olds'
6. Other voices
7. 'Tough' and 'cruel' prose
8. New faces
9. Conclusion
Notes
Select bibliography
English translations of Soviet Russian prose
Index.

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