Political discourse in the context of Utopian world-modelling (on the material of 19-20th-century Russian fiction)

Abstract

In Russian and Western literary studies, the peculiarity of Russian culture is often considered through its connection with Utopian dreams and projects. This article discusses the formation of a utopian metagenre in Russian fiction, tracing a change in emphasis from the political discourse to artistic means, and, conversely, archetypes that distinguish utopian world-modelling in different cultural epochs. Perhaps there is no better term than “Utopia” to describe modern literature. The avant-gardists’ Utopias anticipate a global communist Utopia articulated in their work on the basis of socialist realism
theory, which, in the 1950-1960-s, was replaced by a retrospective Utopia of „peasant writers”. This period offered a variety of retrospective models of Utopian society, as well technocratic Utopias of “molodyozhnaya proza”. In this paradigm the place of post-modernism as a set of techniques used for opposing Utopian intentions, is determined by the role of anti-Utopia.