Masculinity politics in post-Soviet Russian fiction: from Viktor Pelevin to Aleksandr Prokhanov

Abstract

Following the turn of the millennium, masculinity became an important lens through which social, cultural and political dynamics in contemporary Russian society could be studied. The debate on masculinity in post-Soviet Russia – hereafter referred to as the “masculinity question” – is characterised by two interrelated and politicised ideas and beliefs: first, that the nineties, Russia’s early period of transition from communism to capitalism and democracy, inaugurated a crisis of masculinity; and second, that the beginning of the new millennium (and the arrival of President Vladimir Putin into power) led to the country’s re-masculinisation. Richly debatable, these ideas have inspired both popular writing and cultural products, wherein they function as politicised metaphors for the resurgent Russian nation in the aftermath of the demise of the Soviet Union. To date, however, no study has treated the representation of masculinity in post-Soviet Russian fiction. This study aims to fill this gap by examining how Russian writers have depicted masculinity in the post-Soviet era, investigating whether a similar process of masculinity politics has characterised the contemporary Russian literary scene. Drawing on a critical framework that draws upon approaches pertaining to Masculinity Studies, Queer Studies, Literary Studies and Russian Studies, this thesis engages with a selection of novels that were published between 1991 and 2016, written by renowned male Russian writers who explore such questions as national identity in their works. These writers include Viktor Pelevin (*1962), Aleksei Ivanov (*1969), Vladimir Sorokin (*1955), Zakhar Prilepin (*1975) and Aleksandr Prokhanov (*1938). It scrutinises how the masculine identities of male protagonists have been constructed against the backdrop of Russia’s transition from communism to capitalism following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This study contends that Russian post-Soviet masculinity – as represented in the selected texts – is a multiple and inherently fragile construct, marked by the socio-cultural and political context wherein it emerges. Through strategies of ridicule, subversion, re-masculinisation and abjection, notions of masculinity feature within the political dynamics of the selected novels, a process which is referred to as “masculinity politics” and which is associated with the growing politicisation of the Russian literary scene. The thesis therefore uses the concept of “masculinity politics” as a tool to analyse the increasing politicisation of the Russian literary landscape. This study also investigates whether there has been a shift in the literary representation of masculinity throughout the period examined, focusing on its links with an ongoing search for a new national idea after 1991. It demonstrates how the so-called “conservative turn” in Russian society has triggered a shift in the literary representation of masculinities, and demonstrates how different models of masculinity function in the political dynamics of the selected novels. The thesis interprets this process of “re-masculinisation.” depicted in several important novels, as a sign of the insecurities and anxieties of male authors, prompted by such factors as the effects of globalisation on Russian culture and society, nostalgia for the Russian empire, and the decentralisation of Moscow as Russia’s cultural capital.