Description
Book SynopsisThe collapse of the USSR was relatively bloodless. The Chechen Wars were not. A tiny nation on the edge of Russia, Chechnya brought one of the largest armies in the world to its knees. Trauma and Truth examines significant works about these wars by some of Russia’s leading contemporary war authors, including Anna Politkovskaya, Arkady Babchenko, and Zakhar Prilepin. Combining close reading of the texts with descriptions of the authors’ social and political activities and suggestions on how to teach these challenging authors and texts, Trauma and Truth traces the psychological effects of the wars on their participants, and concludes with a discussion of what this means for Russia today.
Trade Review“Elena Pedigo Clark’s Trauma and Truth is a welcome contribution to critical pedagogy in Russian literary and cultural studies… Trauma and Truth offers readers both critical insight into the contemporary literature and journalistic writing that emerged from the modern wars in Chechnya, as well as an embedded, carefully crafted model course on literature and the trauma of war. There is a deep symbiosis between these two constituent parts that resist hierarchy: Is it a volume of teaching-informed scholarship, or an example of researched-informed pedagogy? It is both… The volume’s empathetic approach to the “War is Hell” message of all four authors can and should be included in almost any course on contemporary Russian literature and culture designed for the current generation of students.”
— Thomas Jesús Garza, The Russian Review
Table of ContentsIntroduction
The Structure of This Book
A Note on Transliteration and Citation
1. A Brief Historical Background
2. The Literature of Trauma
3. Anna Politkovskaya: The Martyr of Russian Journalism
4. Mikail Eldin: Rebel with a Cause
5. Arkady Babchenko: “The Motherland will Abandon You, Son. Always”
6. Zakhar Prilepin: The Warrior-Bard of Russian Patriotism
Conclusion
Bibliography
