Unvarnishing reality : subversive Russian and American Cold War satire / Derek C. Maus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maus, Derek C.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Russian fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Russian fiction.

Satire, American--History and criticism.

Satire, American.

Satire, Russian--History and criticism.

Satire, Russian.

Cold War in literature.

Cold War (1945-1989) in literature.

Politics and literature--History--20th century.

Politics and literature.

Cold War--Influence.

Cold War.

History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 247 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Columbia, S.C. : University of South Carolina Press, [2011]

Summary:

Maus (English, State U. of New York at Potsdam) offers a comparative analysis of Cold War satirical writing from the United States and Russia. Exploring writings by Thomas Pynchon, Robert Coover, John Barth, Walker Percy, Don DeLillo, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Vasily Aksyonov, Yuz Aleshkovsky, Alexander Zinoviev, Vladimir Voinovich, Fazil Iskander, and Sasha Sokolov, Maus places each national strand within its own unique historical, political, and cultural context, but nevertheless finds some striking thematic commonalities between the American and Soviet productions, including nuclear anxiety, distrust of militarization, and criticism of the mobilizing construction of threat from the Cold War enemy. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contents:

The role of literature during the cold war

The intersection of literature and politics during the cold war

"The bind of the digital" and other oversimplified logic

Cold war critiques of Utopia

Totalized distortions and fabrications

Epilogue: there is still time.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781570039850

1570039852

OCLC:

698332403