The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual

Abstract

Introduction: the Distinctive role of Socialist Realism in Soviet Culture I. Socialist Realism before 1932 1. What Socialist Realism Is and What Led to Its Adoption as the Official Method of Soviet Literature 2. The Positive Hero in Prevolutionary Fiction 3. Socialist Realist Classics of the Twenties II. High Stalinist Culture 4. The Machine and the Garden: Literature and the Metaphors for the New Society 5. The Stalinist Myth of the Great Family 6. The Sense of Reality in the Heroic Age III. An Analysis of the Conventional Soviet Novel 7. The Prototypical Plot 8. Three Auxiliary Patterns of Ritual Sacrifice IV. Soviet Fiction since World War II 9. The Post-war Stalin Period (1944-53) 10. The Khrushchev Years 11. Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained? Conclusion Appendix A: The Master Plot as Exemplified in the Production Novel and Other Basic Types of Novel of the Stalin Period Appendix B: The Official Short List of Model Novels as Inferred from Speeches to Writers' Union Congresses Afterword Notes Select Bibliography Index