Alisa Seleznёva, a girl alone in outer space: rethinking gender, family and state in late-Soviet children’s science fiction and animation

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates the potential of children’s literature and animation in late-Soviet Russia to subtly reflect the ways in which state ideology and public attitudes towards societal development and social institutions transform, merge with, mimic and come into conflict with one another. The article focuses on a comparative analysis of two Soviet children’s science-fiction texts about the character Alisa Seleznёva, otherwise known as ‘the girl from the future’. These texts are Kir Bulychёv’s novella Alisa’s Journey (1974) and Roman Kachanov’s animated adaptation of this same tale, The Mystery of the Third Planet (1981). The article argues that the emphasis on the experience of a female character, underrepresented in male-dominated Soviet culture, and the choice of a child protagonist is an expression of scepticism towards the normative social roles found within nuclear families, professional and school environments, and the gender behaviours promulgated by the Soviet master discourse.