Form and Transformation in Soviet Underground Writing

Ciepiela, Catherine (EDT)/ Komaromi, Ann (EDT)/ Kukuj, Ilja (EDT)

University of Toronto Press（2026/08発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 272 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781487582944

Full Description

Form and Transformation in Soviet Underground Writing examines the rich literary and cultural innovation that thrived under Soviet censorship in the post-Stalin era. Moving beyond the idea of the underground as merely oppositional, this volume presents it as a vibrant field of artistic experimentation and social imagination.

Through close readings of writers such as Leonid Aronzon, Vsevolod Nekrasov, Olga Sedakova, and Elena Shvarts - alongside studies of Vasilisk Gnedov's late poetry, the international circulation of Evgenia Ginzburg's memoirs, and conversations about publishing Soviet underground writing in the post-Soviet era - the collection explores how underground works moved within samizdat (self-publishing in the USSR) and out to tamizdat (publishing abroad). As these texts crossed media, borders, and decades, they gained new meanings and reshaped ideas of authorship and community. Bringing together literary, historical, and sociological perspectives, the book centres the intermediaries - editors, readers, and translators - who sustained creative autonomy under censorship and fostered communication beyond state control.

By linking Soviet-era artistic innovation to today's contexts of digital culture and renewed authoritarianism, the book reveals how the underground's independence and inventive energy continue to inspire new forms of creativity, resistance, and cultural resilience.

Contents

The Soviet Underground Revisited: An Introduction
Catherine Ciepiela, Ann Komaromi, and Ilja Kukuj

Forms of the Soviet Underground
Ann Komaromi

Section I: Forms of Transmission

From Magadan to Milan: Evgeniia Ginzburg's Journey into the Whirlwind as an Example of the Transnational "Socialization of Texts"
Valentina Parisi

The Blue Lagoon Anthology and the Form of the Archive
Catherine Ciepiela

Digitalizing Obshchenie: Olga Sedakova's Post-Soviet Poetics
Martha M. F. Kelly

Interview with Matvei Yankelevich (Ann Komaromi), the Eastern European Poets Series

Section II: Forms of Poetry

Filling the Empty Page: Vasilisk Gnedov on the Way from Book to Text
Ilja Kukuj

The Birth of Poetry from the Spirit of Nothing: The Case of Leonid Aronzon
Petr Kazarnovskii

Tradition, Transformed: Two Dedication Poems by Elena Shvarts
Laura Little

All and Any: On Vsevolod Nekrasov's Textual Variations
Ainsley Morse

Interview with Mark Lipovetsky (Ilja Kukuj), Approaching Prigov