The University of Wisconsin Press
Russian & Slavic Studies / Literature & Criticism / Women’s Studies
|
The Prose of Life Both before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, everyday life and the domestic sphere served as an ideological battleground, simultaneously threatening Stalinist control and challenging traditional Russian gender norms that had been shaken by the Second World War. The Prose of Life examines how six female authors employed images of daily life to depict women’s experience in Russian culture from the 1960s to the present. Byt, a term connoting both the everyday and its many petty problems, is an enduring yet neglected theme in Russian literature: its very ordinariness causes many critics to ignore it. Benjamin Sutcliffe’s study is the first sustained examination of how and why everyday life as a literary and philosophical category catalyzed the development of post-Stalinist Russian women’s prose, particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union. A focus on the representation of everyday life in women’s prose reveals that a first generation of female writers (Natal’ia Baranskaia, Irina Grekova) both legitimized and limited their successors (Liudmila Petrushevskaia, Tat’iana Tolstaia, Liudmila Ulitskaia, and Svetlana Vasilenko) in their choice of literary topics. The Prose of Life traces the development, and intriguing ruptures, of recent Russian women’s prose, becoming a must-read for readers interested in Russian literature and gender studies. Benjamin M. Sutcliffe is assistant professor of Russian at Miami University, Ohio.
Praise “Sutcliffe approaches his topic with a thorough and richly informative grounding in the texts. . . . The Prose of Life will appeal to a wide range of Russian and Soviet specialists, and to anyone with an interest in twentieth-century literature and society, especially historians who use works of literature in teaching undergraduates. This is the first volume in the Mellon Slavic Studies Initiative, and its quality speaks well for that initiative and its potential contributions to the advancement of knowledge on our field.”—Sibelan Forrester, Canadian Slavonic Papers “A serious contribution to the study of women’s prose which will be of interest to scholars and students of literature, cultural studies, and gender studies alike.” —Marilena Ruscica, Slavic and East European Journal “Incisive and informative. . . . The Prose of Life is a welcome addition to the growing field that takes the best of the two worlds of literary and cultural studies. Sutcliffe’s inquiry into the everyday and its literary representation, into how byt turns, or fails to turn, into bytie, provides insight into one of the most interesting and contentious aspects of Russian culture.” —Lyudmila Parts, Slavic Review “Sutcliffe's graceful prose, extensive notes, and bibliography render this volume a must for anyone interested in gender studies and Russian literature. Essential.” —Choice “A significant contribution to Slavic women’s studies. Sutcliffe’s nuanced chronological overview is unmatched for this topic, and his excellent close readings yield many valuable insights.” —Natasha Kolchevska, University of New Mexico
Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
If you have trouble accessing
any page in this web site, contact our Web manager. Updated 03/02/2015 © 2012, The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System |