The Art of Writing Badly: Valentin Kataev's Mauvism and the Rebirth of Russian Modernism

by Richard C. Borden

Overview

"The art of writing badly" is a phrase the Russian writer Valentin Kataev coined to describe the work that came out of the mauvist movement in Russia-a style of writing that consciously challenged Soviet dogma. In this book, Richard Borden discusses the cultural and political context from which these authors emerged and the development of "bad writing."

Beginning with a close examination of the work of Kataev, the best-known progenitor of "bad writing," Borden then broadens his study to include the "mauvist creations" of post-Stalinist writers Aksenov, Bitov, Sokolov, Limonov, Evgeny Popov, and Venedikt Erofeev. Borden shows how these writers' shared mauvistic characteristics reveal major philosophical and aesthetic tendencies in contemporary Russian culture, bring to light facets of their writing that have never been discussed, and enrich the readings of the particular texts under discussion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810116917
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	09/15/1999
Series:	Studies in Russian Literature and Theory
Edition description:	1
Pages:	404
Product dimensions:	6.35(w) x 9.45(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

RICHARD BORDEN, formerly a member of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, is now an independent scholar living in Moscow.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Chronology of Mauvist Writings

Introduction     The Art of Writing Badly

Chapter One    Kataev's Mauvism in Theory:
                         From Aesthetics to Metaphysics

Chapter Two     Ambiguous Excess, Significant Chaos

Chapter Three  The Aesopian Mauvist

Chapter Four    The Solipsist as Memoirist

Chapter Five     Self-Fiction: A Shattered Life

Chapter Six       The Aesthetics of Graphomania:
                          The Cemetary at Skuliany

Chapter Seven  Mauvists

Chapter Eight    Youth Prose and the "Bad" Beyond: Vasilii Aksenov

Chapter Nine     Russian Litterature's "Bad" Boy: Eduard Limonov

Chapter Ten       The Elusive Self: Andrei Bitov

Chapter Twelve  Toward a Postmodern "Bad": Sasha Sokolov

Notes

Index