Charms of the cynical reason : the trickster's transformations in Soviet and post-Soviet culture / Mark Lipovetsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lipovet︠s︡kiĭ, M. N. (Mark Naumovich)

Series:

Cultural revolutions.

Cultural revolutions: Russia in the twentieth century

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Russian fiction.

Tricksters in literature.

Tricksters in motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Soviet Union--History.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Russia (Federation)--History--20th century.

Literature and society--Soviet Union--History.

Literature and society.

Literature and society--Russia (Federation)--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 pages) : illustrations; digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Academic Studies Press, 2011.

Academic Studies Press, [2016]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

The impetus for Charms of the Cynical Reason is the phenomenal and little-explored popularity of various tricksters flourishing in official and unofficial Soviet culture, as well as in the post-soviet era. Mark Lipovetsky interprets this puzzling phenomenon through analysis of the most remarkable and fascinating literary and cinematic images of soviet and post-soviet tricksters, including such "cultural idioms" as Ostap Bender, Buratino, Vasilii Tyorkin, Shtirlitz, and others. The steadily increasing charisma of Soviet tricksters from the 1920's to the 2000's is indicative of at least two fundamental features of both the soviet and post-soviet societies. First, tricksters reflect the constant presence of irresolvable contradictions and yawning gaps within the soviet (as well as post-soviet) social universe. Secondly, these characters epitomize the realm of cynical culture thus far unrecognized in Russian studies. Soviet tricksters present survival in a cynical, contradictory and inadequate world, not as a necessity, but as a field for creativity, play, and freedom. Through an analysis of the representation of tricksters in soviet and post-soviet culture, Lipovetsky attempts to draw a virtual map of the soviet and post-soviet cynical reason: to identify its symbols, discourses, contradictions, and by these means its historical development from the 1920's to the 2000's.

Contents:

1. At The Heart Of Soviet Civilization: The meaning of the trickster trope; The trickster's politics; The trickster trope and the Soviet subjectivity; Cynical or kynical?

2. Khulio Khurenito: the Trickster's Revolution: Modernizing the trickster; The method: overidentification; Why did Khurenito decide to die?

3. Ostap Bender: the King Is Born: Ostap as trickster; Social schizophrenia; A kynical king of the cynics

4. Buratino: the Utopia of a Free Marionette: Buratino as a mediator; Buratino as an artist; Buratino as a cynic

5. Venichka: a Tragic Trickster: The trickster as the underground author; Rituals of expenditure; "I Will Not Explain to You Who Were These Four ..."

6. Tricksters In Disguise: The Trickster's Transformations In The Soviet Film Of The 1960s-70s: "Reformed" tricksters in the comedies of the 70s-80s: Gaidai's Tricksters; Riazanov's Detochkin; Daneliia's Buzykin; The art of alibi: Stierlitz as the Soviet intelligent : Who are you working for?; The Imperial Mediator; Stierlitz's Afterlife

7. Splitting The Trickster: Pelevin's Shape-Shifters: The society of shape-shifters; Genealogy of the heroine; A fairytale about shape-shifters; The trickster's magic/politics: a bifurcation point; Cynic versus kynic.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-288) and index.

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 https://www.degruyter.com/dg/page/open-access-policy

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed September 05 2025)

ISBN:

9781618118509

1618118501

9781618111357

1618111353

OCLC:

785776758