In the End Was the Word: Speculative Fiction as a Stylistic Experiment. (1st October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Galina, Maria
• Is Part Of: Russian studies in literature. Volume 52:Number 3/4(2016)
• Page Start: 266
• Page End: 273
• Publication Date: 2016-10-01
• Subjects: Literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Literature; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Periodicals; 891.7
• DOI: 10.1080/10611975.2016.1264029
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1061-1975

Abstract

Abstract : Maria Galina notes the greater stylistic freedom offered by genre fiction, including fantastika. She discusses Sergei Zharkovskii's 2005 novel I, Hobo: The Times of Death, and Elena Khaetskaia's 2010 novel The Fall of Sofia (comparing its mix of futurology with social and linguistic archaism to that in Vladimir Sorokin's 2010 Blizzard ) as worthy stylistic experiments. After mentioning Jasper Fforde's literature-focused novels, partly translated into Russian, Galina notes the hopelessness in the powers of language and literature expressed in Tatiana Tolstaya's Slynx and Vladimir Danikhnov's The Girl and the Dead .