The New Russian Book: A Graphic Cultural History

Description

This book takes up the obtrusive problem of visual representation of fiction in contemporary Russian book design. By analyzing a broad variety of book covers, the study offers an absolutely unique material that illustrates a radically changing notion of literature in the transformation of Soviet print culture to a post-Soviet book market. It delivers a profound and critical exploration of Russian visual imaginary of classic, popular, and contemporary prose. Among all the carelessly bungled covers of mass-published post-Soviet series the study identifies gems from experimental designers. By taking a comparative approach to the clash of two formerly separate book cultures, the Western and the Soviet, that results both in a mixture of highbrow and lowbrow forms and in ideological re-interpretations of the literary works, this book contributes to opening an East-West dialogue between the fields of Russian studies, contemporary book and media history, art, design, and visual studies. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction: Research Design (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 1-30 Front Matter ....Pages 31-31 The Soviet Hardback Revolution (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 33-59 Perestroika and Post-Soviet Redesign (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 61-82 Russian Book Design Today (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 83-102 Front Matter ....Pages 103-103 The Classic Returns: Anton Chekhov’s “Dama s sobachkoi” (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 105-148 The Western World in a Russian Pocket? (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 149-180 The Kaleidoscopic Images of Viktor Pelevin’s Generation “P” (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 181-214 Front Matter ....Pages 215-215 Book Artist or Designer? (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 217-228 Arkadii Troianker: Nonconformist Book Experiments in Changing Media (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 229-258 Andrei Bondarenko: From the Bright Underground to Dark Clouds (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 259-286 Outlook on the Next Generation: Aleksandr Utkin’s New Printed Classics (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 287-297 Conclusion (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages 299-307 Erratum to: The Soviet Hardback Revolution (Birgitte Beck Pristed)....Pages E1-E1 Back Matter ....Pages 309-343