| Automatic for the Masses: The Death of the Author and the Birth of Socialist Realism Contributor(s): Petrov, Petre M. (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1487540418 ISBN-13: 9781487540418 Publisher: University of Toronto Press OUR PRICE: $40.80 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Eastern European (see Also Russian & Former Soviet Union) - History | Europe - General - History | Eastern Europe - General |
| Dewey: 700.9 |
| Physical Information: 0.73" H x 6" W x 9" (1.06 lbs) 328 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: At the end of the 1920s, the Modernist and avant-garde artistic programmes of the early Soviet Union were swept away by the rise of Stalinism and the dictates of Socialist Realism. Did this aesthetic transition also constitute a conceptual break, or were there unseen continuities between these two movements? In Automatic for the Masses, Petre M. Petrov offers a novel, theoretically informed account of that transition, tracing those connections through Modernist notions of agency and authorship. Reading the statements and manifestos of the Formalists, Constructivists, and other Soviet avant-garde artists, Petrov argues that Socialist Realism perpetuated in a new form the Modernist "death of the author." In interpreting this symbolic demise, he shows how the official culture of the 1930s can be seen as a perverted realization of modernism's unrealizable project. An insightful and challenging interpretation of the era, Automatic for the Masses will be required reading for those interested in understanding early Soviet culture. |