Russian Postmodernism

Mikhail N. Epstein was one of the main proponents of postmodernism in Russia and the founder of the Laboratory of Modern Culture, Experimental Center of Creativity, Moscow. He is S. C. Dobbs Professor of Cultural Theory and Russian Literature at Emory University (USA) and Professor of Russian and Cultural Theory, Director of Centre for Humanities Innovation, at Durham University (UK).

Preface to the 1st edition

Thomas Epstein



Preface to the 2nd edition: Postmodernism and the Explosive Style of the Twenty-First Century

Mikhail Epstein



Introduction: “New Sectarianism” and the Pleasure Principle in Postmodern Russian Culture

Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover



PART I: THE MAKING OF RUSSIAN POSTMODERNISM



Chapter 1. The Dialectics of Hyper: From Modernism to Postmodernism

Mikhail Epstein



Chapter 2. Postmodernism, Communism, and Sots‑Art

Mikhail Epstein



Chapter 3. Representation of the Other in the Literature of the 1960s

Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover



Chapter 4. Perestroika as a Literary Paradigm Shift

Alexander Genis



PART II: MANIFESTOS OF RUSSIAN POSTMODERNISM



Literary Manifestos

Mikhail Epstein



Chapter 5. Theses on Metarealism and Conceptualism (1983)

Chapter 6. On Olga Sedakova and Lev Rubinshtein (1984)

Chapter 7. What is Metarealism? Facts and Hypotheses (1986)

Chapter 8. What is Metabole? On the Third Trope (1986)

Chapter 9. Like a Corpse in the Desert: On the New Moscow Poetry (1987)

Chapter 10. A Catalogue of New Poetries (1987)



Cultural Manifestos

Mikhail Epstein



Chapter 11. Essayism: An Essay on the Essay (1982)

Chapter 12. The Ecology of Thinking (1982)

Chapter 13. Minimal Religion (1982)

Chapter 14. The Age of Universalism (1983)

Chapter 15. The Paradox of Acceleration (1985)



PART III: SOCIALIST REALISM AND POSTMODERNISM



Chapter 16. Archaic Postmodernism: The Aesthetics of Andrei Sinyavsky

Alexander Genis



Chapter 17. Postmodernism and Socialist Realism: From Sinyavsky to Sorokin

Alexander Genis



Chapter 18. Borders and Metamorphoses: Victor Pelevin in the Context of Post-Soviet Literature

Alexander Genis



PART IV: CONCEPTUALISM



Chapter 19. The New Model of Discourse in Post–Soviet Fiction: Liudmila Petrushevskaia and Tatiana Tolstaia

Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover



Chapter 20. Heterogeneity and the Post-Avant-Garde: The Excremental Poetics of Vladimir Sorokin

Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover



Chapter 21. Emptiness as Technique: Word and Image in Ilya Kabakov

Mikhail Epstein



Chapter 22. The Philosophical Implications of Russian Conceptualism

Mikhail Epstein



PART V: POSTMODERNISM AND SPIRITUALITY



Chapter 23. Post-Atheism:  From Apophatic Theology to “Minimal Religion”

Mikhail Epstein



Chapter 24. Onions and Cabbages: Paradigms of Contemporary Culture

Alexander Genis



Chapter 25. The Charms of Entropy and New Sentimentality

Mikhail Epstein



Conclusion: On the Place of Postmodernism in Postmodernity

Mikhail Epstein



Select Bibliography

Index of Names

Index of Subjects