Loading ...The Place Of Literature In A Post-Soviet Russia: A Changing Market Environment and the Future of Russia’s Writers
By Evan ~ February 17th, 2009. Filed under: writing.
THE WRITERS, PORNOGRAPHY AND “PULP-FICTION”
The authors of post-perestroika prose have, for the most part, seen their literature fall on deaf ears with intermittent periods of success over the past thirteen years. In the previous section, some of the blame for this was placed on the environment of the Russian marketplace, and on reading tendencies of both educated and non-educated Russians. Some of this blame also falls on the shoulders of the authors. For the past thirteen years, a portion of their work has helped label them as cynics, with jaded views of post-Soviet Russian life.
When perestroika reached its pinnacle, the intelligentsia had visions of grandeur for Russian culture. Somehow, since then, “the writer was virtually the first to be ousted from the pedestal on which he had been placed. As the culture collapsed with a road, it buried him.” In today’s market driven society, many critics argue that the originality that perestroika initially ushered in is simply being mirrored by modern prose. That is to say, where once readers were given scathing exposes to read, they are now just being presented with the other side of the argument. Surely this is not the genuine and unique literature culture that was to be expected as a post-Soviet Russia began to take form. The culprits in this case are largely the authors of pornography and “pulp-fiction,” which is the majority of the work being produced and purchased in Russia today.
Pornographic texts have become widely accepted in Russia, and the plots of these novels seem to be nothing more than reactions to a totalitarian system of morals, just with lurid sex tales intermittently placed throughout the story. The onslaught of such a licentious literary trend is due in part to “The glut of tragedy during perestroika—something that we were practically praying for ten years previously—led to the only possible outcome: to the exploitation of taboos, compounded by a catastrophic cultural decline.” Pornography has emerged in the last thirteen years to become a quite prevalent form of literature. Since the average reader has neither the patience nor the desire to dissect the inherent messages in critical or avant-garde texts, they demand something that is directed at their personal needs. In Russia’s current social climate, pornography has become widespread in literature as well as everyday life. With an endlessly struggling economy, some women argue that even prostitution has been described as a means for a woman to make an honest day’s pay while exerting her independence.
“Pulp-fiction” is the heading given to broad range of fiction that contains (not exclusively) tales of adventure, romance, detective stories, pornography, the narcotics trade… basically all the niche markets. Despite being considered useless by the intelligentsia—who believe literature is a tool for expressing dissent and criticizing the current state of affairs—they are the top grossing products on the marketplace. They depict lavish, unreasonable lifestyles for common citizens who are interested in literature as an escape from their current positions. They’re full of living rich, “buying drinks that cost 160 rubles and paying $200 tabs for a café lunch; the life they live is no one’s business but their own.” They are widely introverted and anti-social, which appeals to an average reader who simply wants to escape life and doesn’t want to deal with the mazes of postmodernist confusion present in avant-garde literature. These readers may not see a need for dissenting opinions in modern Russia, so they also stray from texts that openly question the policymaking of officials. With “pulp-fiction” tales, they can relax and envision of life far removed from that of the normal post-Soviet Russian experience. For them, the aesthetic nature of a book is not dependent on how unique or original it is. What matters most is, is it fun, exciting, and enjoyable.
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That’s an A+ paper, kids.
