Political Economy of Socialist Realism
For decades Stalinist literature, film, and art was almost exclusively deemed political propaganda imposed from on high, devoid of any aesthetic significance. In this book, Evgeny Dobrenko suggests an entirely new view: socialism did not produce Socialist Realism to 'prettify reality'; rather, Socialist Realism itself produced socialism by elevating socialism to reality status, giving it material form. Without art, socialism could not have materialized. Bringing together the Soviet historical experience and Stalin-era art, in novels, films, poems, songs, painting, photography, architecture, and advertising, Dobrenko examines Stalinism's representational strategies and demonstrates how real socialism was begotten of Socialist Realism. Socialist Realism, he concludes, was Stalinism's most effective sociopolitical institution.
About the Author
Evgeny Dobrenko is professor in the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is author, editor, or co-editor of fifteen books, including "Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917-1953", co-edited with Katerina Clark and published by Yale University Press. He lives in Sheffield in England.
Reviews
"Evgeny Dobrenko has written the most sweeping, theoretically-informed book to-date on Socialist Realism and its centrality to the Stalinist project. He presents a chilling analysis of Socialist Realism as a discourse of repression. From photojournalism, to cinema, to biology, to advertising and Stalin's speeches, Dobrenko shows how Socialist Realism produced socialism by aestheticizing and 'de-realizing' life. I have never seen a more convincing indictment of art's centrality in Soviet terror" – Eric Naiman, University of California, Berkeley
