Beau Monde on Empire's Edge: State and Stage in Soviet Ukraine
In Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge, Mayhill C. Fowler tells the story of the rise and fall of a group of men who created culture both Soviet and Ukrainian. This collective biography showcases new aspects of the politics of cultural production in the Soviet Union by focusing on theatre and on the multi-ethnic borderlands. Unlike their contemporaries in Moscow or Leningrad, these artists from the regions have been all but forgotten despite the quality of their art. Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge restores the periphery to the centre of Soviet culture. Sources in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Yiddish highlight the important multi-ethnic context and the challenges inherent in constructing Ukrainian culture in a place of Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, and Jews. Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge traces the growing overlap between the arts and the state in the early Soviet years, and explains the intertwining of politics and culture in the region today.
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Beau Monde on Empire's Edge: State and Stage in Soviet Ukraine
In Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge, Mayhill C. Fowler tells the story of the rise and fall of a group of men who created culture both Soviet and Ukrainian. This collective biography showcases new aspects of the politics of cultural production in the Soviet Union by focusing on theatre and on the multi-ethnic borderlands. Unlike their contemporaries in Moscow or Leningrad, these artists from the regions have been all but forgotten despite the quality of their art. Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge restores the periphery to the centre of Soviet culture. Sources in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Yiddish highlight the important multi-ethnic context and the challenges inherent in constructing Ukrainian culture in a place of Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, and Jews. Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge traces the growing overlap between the arts and the state in the early Soviet years, and explains the intertwining of politics and culture in the region today.
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Beau Monde on Empire's Edge: State and Stage in Soviet Ukraine
In Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge, Mayhill C. Fowler tells the story of the rise and fall of a group of men who created culture both Soviet and Ukrainian. This collective biography showcases new aspects of the politics of cultural production in the Soviet Union by focusing on theatre and on the multi-ethnic borderlands. Unlike their contemporaries in Moscow or Leningrad, these artists from the regions have been all but forgotten despite the quality of their art. Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge restores the periphery to the centre of Soviet culture. Sources in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Yiddish highlight the important multi-ethnic context and the challenges inherent in constructing Ukrainian culture in a place of Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, and Jews. Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge traces the growing overlap between the arts and the state in the early Soviet years, and explains the intertwining of politics and culture in the region today.
Mayhill C. Fowler is an assistant professor of history at Stetson University.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Preface to the Ukrainian Edition Acknowledgments Note to the Reader on Transliteration Abbreviations
Introduction: The Beau Monde on the Borderlands
1. The Russian Imperial Southwest: Theatre in the Age of Modernism and Pogroms
2. The Literary Fair: Mikhail Bulgakov and Mykola Kulish
3. Comedy Soviet and Ukrainian?: Il'f-Petrov and Ostap Vyshnia
4. The Officical Artist: Solomon Mikhoels and Les' Kurbas
5. The Arts Official: Andrii Khvylia, Vsevolod Balyts'kyi, and the Kremlin
6. Soviet Beau Monde: The Gulag and Kremlin Cabaret
Notes Selected Bibliography Index
What People are Saying About This
Irena Makaryk
"Beau Monde on Empire's Edge is a wonderful piece of work; it is beautifully written, in a witty, textured, and lively prose. Mayhill C. Fowler has a visceral — as well as an intellectual and theoretical — understanding of theatre and of audience that shows on every page of the manuscript."
