Text

theses

ETD doctoral

This dissertation studies literary and non-literary discourses related to normative and deviant alcohol use during the late Soviet period, a transformative time in the history of Russia. It connects these discourses to the process of disintegration of Soviet ideology as conceptualized by Alexei Yurchak, aiming to demonstrate that depictions of the Soviet subject’s engagements with alcohol provided a unique way to reflect a reconfiguration of normativity within a shifting social and intellectual context. In doing so, the project takes into account the fact that all the texts it examines, from medical literature and newspaper articles to literary fiction, functioned in an environment strongly influenced by censorship and a hegemonic official discourse, a situation that often led to alcohol serving as a coded link to other topics. Specifically, the dissertation traces changes in stereotypes associated with drinking excesses during the late Soviet period, concluding that propaganda discourses consistently connected drunkenness with characteristics and behaviors “undesirable” in a Soviet subject, even as the authoritative idea of normativity changed through the years. Close readings of published fiction by Soviet writers support the idea that conversations about drinking can be a language of power to the same degree as drinking rituals themselves. Recognizing the role of Socialist Realism as the dominant literary mode, the dissertation delves into the ways late Soviet and early post-Soviet works of fiction portrayed alcohol use in order to engage with the tropes of Socialist Realism, constructing a more up-to-date subjectivity. With the help of trauma theory, the dissertation demonstrates how depictions of intoxication, alcohol-induced blackouts, and addiction-driven repetition inflict postmodernist fragmentation on the subject in the work of Andrei Bitov. It concludes by examining early post-Soviet fiction’s attempts to reconstitute a subject adapted to the new economic and social reality. The dissertation posits that this is accomplished with the help of a turn toward the archaic trope of the hero journey, in which alcohol is used as a bridge between realist narrative and myth.

ETD_11405

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-s8wm-j722

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