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SOVIET POST-WAR ANTI-UTOPIA
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DOI: 10.26710/fk17-04-02
Abstract: It is usually believed that there were no anti-utopian works in the Post-War Soviet literature (1945—1953), at least among the texts to be published. This paper is aimed at reconsideration of this view. The article is focused on comparison of the two works: Lazar’ Lagin’s novel Patent AV (The Patent AV, 1946) and Andrei Platonov’s unfinished theater play Noev Kovcheg (Kainovo otrod’ie) (Noah’s Arc (The spawn of Cain), 1950). Lagin’s novel was immediately published, and Platonov’s piece was banned and defined (in an editor’s peer review) as ‘a result of full disintegration of consciousness.’ However, when comparing these works, one can notice that they have one common and very important trait: they predict the emergence of «new children», totally brainwashed and susceptible to further propagandist influence. These motifs were brought about with the deep rupture between adults and adolescents. This rupture emerged during the Second World War and entailed hidden social tension and social obsession in the Soviet society starting from 1945. It could not be discussed in media due to the censorship taboos, but it provoked rumors and citizens’ letters to the newspapers. As I hope to demonstrate, when representing these social fears, Platonov and Lagin didn’t use any ‘Aesopian language,’ but invented another form of circumlocution that I would propose to designate as fantastic social modeling.
Key words: ANTI-UTOPIA, COLD WAR, POST-WAR LITERATURE, SOVIET LITERATURE, RUSSIAN WRITERS
For citation
Kukulin, I. V. Soviet Post-war Anti-utopia / I. V. Kukulin . In Philological Class. 2017. №4 (50). P. 14-24. DOI 10.26710/fk17-04-02 .