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1.7 - Modernism and the Avant-Garde

from History 1 - Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 December 2024

By
Connor Doak
Edited by
Simon Franklin ,
Rebecca Reich  and
Emma Widdis
Simon Franklin
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Rebecca Reich
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Emma Widdis
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter provides an introduction to Russian literature in the Modernist and avant-garde period, stretching from about 1890 to 1930. This period was one of extraordinary experimentation in Russian literature and the chapter outlines the differences between the key movements that emerged and their leading practitioners, including Symbolism (Aleksandr Blok), Futurism (Vladimir Maiakovskii, Velimir Khlebnikov), and Acmeism (Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelshtam). It highlights the inextricable links between literature and politics in this period, especially following the Revolution of 1917, which saw the Bolsheviks take power and establish the Soviet Union. While the early 1920s witnessed a genuine debate among writers about what the new Soviet literature would look like, this diversity vanished by the end of the decade as centralisation took hold. By the 1930s, Socialist Realism had become the only approved official aesthetic. The chapter concludes with remarks about the Modernists’ legacy within and beyond Russia.

Keywords

Modernismavant-gardepoetryFuturismAleksandr BlokVladimir MaiakovskiiVelimir KhlebnikovAnna AkhmatovaOsip Mandelshtam
Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge History of Russian Literature , pp. 125 - 146
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Balina, Marina, and Dobrenko, Evgenii (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Russian Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Erlich, Victor, Modernism and Revolution: Russian Literature in Transition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994).Google Scholar
Forrester, Sibelan E. S., and Kelly, Martha M. F., Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts and Contexts (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Markov, Vladimir, Russian Futurism: A History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968).Google Scholar
Masing, Irene-Delic, From Symbolism to Socialist Realism: A Reader (Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Paperno, Irina, and Grossman, Joan Delaney (eds.), Creating Life: The Aesthetic Utopia of Russian Modernism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994).Google Scholar

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