| Description |
This paper takes a critical look at the Soviet Union's official literary form, Socialist Realism. This writing style will be placed in its historical context, examining the past to find inspiration and explanation for its development. This work will also focus on three major works of Soviet literature. The first is Sinyavsky's, On Socialist Realism, which explores in depth the nature of Socialist Realism and provided much of the direction for this paper. The second is Gladkov's Cement, which was a founding novel in the establishment of Socialist Realism. Gladkov wrote this work as propaganda to help support the regime and to help build Communism. Although it created a fantasy world, with ideal proletarian heroes, it also offers a unique portrait of some of the realities of Soviet life and the personality of the party leadership. The third work this paper examines is Chukovskaya's Sofia Petrovna. This novel was chosen because it offers a beautiful contrast between what Socialist Realism was supposed to have accomplished and what the realities of Soviet life turned out to be. This novel also employed techniques of Socialist Realism such as the positive hero, but for a different end, to critique the "Communist" society. Finally, the paper addresses the question of whether or not Socialist Realism reflects any of the realities of Soviet life and will show that it does, that Socialist Realism is more than just a Communist fairy tale. |
