Russian Science Fiction Literature and Cinema:
A C r itica l R ea der
Cultural Syllabus Series Editor MARK LIPOVETSKY (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Russian Science Fiction Literature and Cinema:
A Critica l R ea der
Edited and Introduced by ANINDITA BANERJEE
Boston 2018
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Banerjee, Anindita, editor. Title: Russian science fiction literature and cinema : a critical reader/ edited and introduced by Anindita Banerjee. Description: Boston : Academic Studies Press, 2018. | Series: Cultural syllabus | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017043784 (print) | LCCN 2017050050 (ebook) | ISBN 9781618117243 (e-book) | ISBN 9781618117229 (hardback) | ISBN 9781618117236 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Science fiction, Russian—History and criticism. | Science fiction films—Soviet Union—History and criticism. Classification: LCC PG3098.S5 (ebook) | LCC PG3098.S5 R83 2017 (print) | DDC 891.73/08762—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017043784 ©Academic Studies Press, 2018 ISBN 978-1-61811-722-9 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-61811-723-6 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-61811-724-3 (electronic) Book design by Kryon Publishing Services (P) Ltd. www.kryonpublishing.com Cover design by Ivan Grave Published by Academic Studies Press 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA
[email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com
Table of Contents Introduction: A Possible Strangeness: Reading Russian Science Fiction on the Page and the Screen������������������������������������������������������������viii
Anindita Banerjee
PART ONE From Utopian Traditions to Revolutionary Dreams
01
The Utopian Tradition of Russian Science Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01 Darko Suvin Red Star: Another Look at Aleksandr Bogdanov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Mark B. Adams Generating Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Anindita Banerjee Imagining the Cosmos: Utopians, Mystics, and the Popular Culture of Spaceflight in Revolutionary Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Asif A. Siddiqi
vi
Table of Contents
PART TWO Russia’s Roaring Twenties
117
Soviet Science Fiction of the 1920s: Explaining a Literary Genre in its Political and Social Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Dominic Esler The Plural Self: Zamiatin’s We and the Logic of Synecdoche . . . . . . . . 147 Eliot Borenstein Science Fiction of the Domestic: Iakov Protazanov’s Aelita . . . . . . . . . . 166 Andrew J. Horton Eugenics, Rejuvenation, and Bulgakov’s Journey into the Heart of Dogness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Yvonne Howell PART THREE From Stalin to Sputnik and Beyond
201