Late Stalinism: The Aesthetics of Politics

Description

In this nuanced historical analysis of late Stalinism organized chronologically around the main events of the period—beginning with Victory in May 1945 and concluding with the death of Stalin in March 1953—Evgeny Dobrenko analyzes key cultural texts to trace the emergence of an imperial Soviet consciousness that, he argues, still defines the political and cultural profile of modern Russia. Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Victory over the Revolution: A Transformed War 2. From Metaphor to Metonymy: The Political Tropology of Historicism 3. Three Resolutions about Beauty: Ideological Conscientiousness as Device 4. Meta-Stalinism: The Dialectics of Party-Mindedness and the Party-Mindedness of Dialectics 5. Realästhetik: Populism Instead of Music 6. Gesamtwissenschaftswerk: Romantic Naturalism and Life in Its Revolutionary Development 7. The Power of Grammar and the Grammar of Power: Linguistic Realism 8. Socialist Surrealism: Representing Life in the Forms of Life Itself 9. Gesamtkriegswerk: Cold War Hall of Mirrors in the Ministry of Truth Notes Works Cited Index