30
Svetlana Stomatova
the 1970, this perception turned into collective conscious in the 1980’s. It was just in this
period that post-modernism became legalized, many literary works were printed, and post-
modernism became a part of the cultural conscious
(Potapov, 1989)
. Among the representatives
of this period, which is also called
the second wave, it is possible to see authors such as E.
Popov, V. Narbikova, V. Epofeev, V. Sorokin, T. Tolstaya, V. Pietsuh, G. Golovin and O.
Ivanchenko.
Postmodernism which appeared in the 1970’s and became legalized in the 1980’s
manifested itself most significantly in the 1990’s. The generation of the 90’s, who were not
content with the experience they got from the generations of the 70’s and 80’s and who
adopted the theoretical principles of the Western post-modern aesthetics, generated a varied
and diversified literary understanding in a poetic and aesthetic manner. In this generation,
consisting of old and new generations, while on one side there are the representatives of the
old generation such as V. Makanin (The Underground, or a Hero of Our Time), V. Aksyonov
(The New Sweet Style), Y. Davydov (Bestseller), and L. Petrushevskaya (Tales for Children
and Adults), on the other side there are the prominent writers of the new generation such as
M. Butov (Liberty), A. Kabakov (The Last Hero), V. Pelevin (Omon Ra, The Life of Insects,
Chapayev and Void, Generation), Y. Maletskiy (Lyubyu), and V. Sharov (Before and
During).
When we evaluate the 1990’s in terms of literary process, we can say that post-modern
tendencies in Russia are divided into various branches. This literary division, which is
examined in two main categories – aristocratic and collective, resulted in the formation of
new movements which were derived from post-modernist ideas; thus, Russian literature could
produce distinctive works.
When we consider the collective literature mentioned above,
we can see that it generally
addresses the ordinary readers. Literary works which fall into the categories of fantasy, which
is the opposite of science fiction, detective and history were written in accordance with the
post-modern principles. Aristocratic literature, on the other hand, embodies more genres than
the collective literature does. It structurally exhibits a multi-layered character, and it holds
numerous movement and several writing styles. One of the post-modernist movements that
stands out in this period is conceptualism, which demolishes the myths formed with certain
stereotypes in the Soviet period and handles their ideologies critically. The foremost
representatives of this movement, which is derived from the concept, or idea, are L.
Rubinstein, D. Prigov and V. Nekrasov.
Depending on which of the patterns the post-modernist artist “
has chosen to play” with,
the direction of the post-modernism is determined. Therefore, when the post-modernist
tendency in Russian literature in the 1990’s is considered, two main versions,
Sots-Art and
Ros-Art, can be identified. The first of these versions, Sots-Art, has developed as a sequel to
conceptualism and produced many literary works that take the social realism as base ironizing
and parodying the Soviet culture and conscious. In other words, when Pop-Art, which has
emerged as a reaction to the
abstract expressionism in the West, accommodates comic books
using images, themes and texts from advertisements, Sots-Art embraces the images and
themes of social realism especially in Russia and manifests itself as a reaction to total
ideology. It is possible to see Sots-Art in V. Sorokin’s stories, Y. Aleshkovsky’s “Kangaroo”
and Z. Gareev’s “Park”. On the other hand, as N. Ivanova (2000) mentioned, it can be
observed that towards the end of the twentieth century Sot-Art started to burn itself out and
Ros-Art, which depends on the classical Russian literature, replaced it. Ros-Art, which
31
Problems of Formation of Russian Literature in
the Post-Soviet Period
borrows themes from the classical literature, comes through in V. Sorokin’s “A Novel”, E.
Popov’s “On the Eve of the Eve”, and B. Akunin’s “The Seagull”.
In conclusion, in the Post-Soviet period Russian literature, as a whole, there were a
variety of literary styles. Apart from the ones that are mentioned above, Russian critics also
see tendencies such as “chernuha (the movement in literature that shows the darkest sides of
life)”, “schizoanalysis”, “carnivalization of language”, “absurd bricolage”, “ecological post-
modernism”, “post-humanism”, “post-realism” and “post-post-modernism” as a part of the
Post-Soviet period (İvbulis, 1989; Kulakov, 1999; Kurits n, 2000). Needless to say, each of
these styles is developed from the style of a particular writer who prefers to follow a similar
method or concept in his or her literary works. The most valuable ones among the works of
this type are considered to be the ones that do not adhere to a specific scheme or method but
go beyond them. According to V. Kuritsin (2000), a strong writer determines new tendencies
demolishing the theoretical rules while an ordinary writer abides by certain tendencies.
Thus, when we consider the literary variety in the Post-Soviet period, it is possible to
say that Russian literature after the Soviet period is comprised of many independent and
genuine writers, and this presents numerous alternative research topics for the researchers of
literature.
3.
Considerations and Results
Considering all the ideas above we can say that the thematic and problematic formations
expressed by the post-Soviet Russian literature are the universal postmodern themes inherent
in postcolonial cultures. As mentioned before, these are the problems of human leveling,
marginal
attitude, deviation from the norm and blurring of any rules in general etc.
One of the most powerful sources of Russian postmodernism is the simulative
communist reality of post-war years which revealed itself in dehumanization of the society
and ideological and aesthetic eclecticism.
The Russian post-modern literature is represented by the works of at least three
generations of artists displayed in two "waves" - the end of the 60's - 80's and the late 80's -
90's. The common view they have is the rethinking of the present in favor of non-hierarchical
world view and accepting the elusiveness of the real world and the reality of the absurd.
Deconstructing the myths of the Russian intellectuals and national history takes the leading
role in the subjects of these literary works.
In the 90s the Russian postmodern literature divided into mass and elite. The mass
literature basically spreads the principles of postmodern poetry in the genres of fantasy,
detective stories, "historical" best-selling novels etc.
Elite Russian postmodern prose has different genres, many structures and levels, with
numerous "tendencies" and styles - from the already well-known social art and conceptualism
to the "chernuha" and absurdist bricolage and to "postrealism".
According to provided benefits in the subjects of the national postmodernism, various
genres and styles dominate it: in Russia one of the most powerful tendencies became
conceptualism (in its different versions). Besides, the dominant intentional vector of the
Russian posmodernism, which is the result of the actualization of national cultural complexes,
is simulative mythology and the problem of the "randomness of the Russian soul" (V. Petsuh).