Nietzsche and Soviet Culture: Ally and Adversary

by Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal

Overview

This pioneering study shows for the first time the extent and diversity of the impact of Nietzschean ideas on Soviet literature and culture. It examines the Nietzschean roots of early Soviet literature, theater and architecture, Soviet political culture, the work of disaffected writers and thinkers and that of intellectuals of the non-Russian nationalities. It offers a fresh perspective on the origins, formative years, and subsequent development of Soviet literature and culture, and raises new issues for research and discussion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521452816
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/22/1994
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	5.63(w) x 8.82(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of contributors; Acknowledgement; List of abbreviations; Introduction Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal; Part I. Nietzsche and the Prerevolutionary Roots of Soviet Culture: 1. Nietzsche and the young Mayakovsky Bengt Jangfeldt; 2. Khlebnikov and Nietzsche: pieces of an incomplete mosaic Henryk Baran; 3. Apollonianism and Christian art: Nietzsche's influence on Acmeism Elaine Rusinko; 4. Armchair anarchists and salon supermen: Russian occultists read Nietzsche Maria Carlson; Part II. Nietzsche and Soviet Initiatives in the Arts: 5. Nietzschean leaders and followers in Soviet mass theater, 1917–27 James von Geldern; 6. Revolution as an aesthetic phenomenon: Nietzschean motifs in the reception of Isaac Babel (1923–32) Gregory Freidin; 7. Nietzschean implications and superhuman aspirations in the architectural avant-garde Milka Bliznakov; 8. Nietzscheanism and the return of Pushkin in twentieth-century Russian culture (1899–1937) Irina Paperno; Part III. Adaptations of Nietzsche in Soviet Ideology: 9. Nietzschean motifs in the Komsomol's vanguardism Isabel A. Tirado; 10. Nietzschean roots of Stalinist culture Mikhail Agursky; 11. Superman imagery in Soviet photography and photomontage Margarita Tupitsyn; Part IV: Nietzsche among Disaffected Writers and Thinkers: 12. From beyond the abyss: Nietzschean myth in Zamiatin's We and Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago Edith Clowes; 13. Mandelstam, Nietzsche, and the conscious creation of history Clare Cavanagh; 14. Nietzsche's influence on the non-official culture of the 1930s Boris Groys; Part V. Nietzsche and the Nationalities: A Case Study: 15. Nietzsche's influence on Hebrew writers of the Russian empire Menahem Brinker; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...the essays succeed in unearthing 'the hitherto buried Nietzschean elements of Soviet culture,' demonstrating the profound influence—direct and indirect—Nietzsche exerted on the birth and evolution of the 20th-century colossus." H.I. Einsohn, Choice

"Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal has, with this volume...established a sumptuous site for excavation." Lesley Chamberlain, TLS

"Cambridge University Press's series on Russian literature includes a number of admirable volumes....this collection of essays on the impact of Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas on Soviet culture adds tho the distinction of the Cambridge list....Readers will be drawn to individual essays by their own particular interests, but the entire volume is characterized by meticulous research and a uniformly high standard of scholarship. The book is a significant addition to Soviet cultural studies and to modern intellectual history." American Historical Review

"The collection of essays edited by Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal carries forward the impressive work inaugurated in her earlier collection, Nietzsche in Russia, by tracing Nietzsche's influence forward into the obscurity of the Soviet era, when official censorship forced all Nietzschean streams underground." Journal of Modern History

"Many of the essays collected here are excellent and present findings that, as Rosenthal expects, will probably surprise many observers of Soviet culture....any scholar of Soviet culture, and even those who have investigated the role of Nietzsche in Russian culture, will find that Rosenthal's book is well worth reading..." Slavic Review

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