The Russophone Literature of Resistance: Introduction

Abstract

The Russophone Literature of ResistanceIntroduction Mark Lipovetsky (bio) and Kevin M. F. Platt (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Citizen-activist Evgenia Isayeva doused herself with red paint as part of the "Heart Bleeds" action near the Duma Tower, St. Petersburg, Russia, March 27, 2022. Her banner reads: "My heart bleeds. / I sense that it is pointless to make an appeal to reason, so I appeal to your hearts. / Every day in Ukraine, women, children, and the elderly are dying. In bombing raids, from starvation, because they are trapped under debris or cannot get medicine. Their graves with hand-made crosses are visible in courtyards and children's playgrounds. Thousands of wounded and mutilated; millions of lives ruined. If you can find any justification for this, then your heart is blind. / Find in yourself the strength to show mercy and compassion. / Don't support the bloodshed!" / Photo by Sergey Nikolaev [End Page 38] Introduction The Russian Federation's unprovoked and cruel war against Ukraine has cast a shadow over all Russian culture, it would seem. At present, one may hear voices accusing Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky of guilt for the atrocities of the Russian Federation's army and leadership. The relation of these classics to Russian imperial violence, past and present, is an enormous topic, which we will not take up here. Instead, let us consider contemporary Russian writers and writing, which, unlike Tolstoy, have no hope of an alibi, some would argue. As the writing we have assembled for this special issue of World Literature Today demonstrates, the language one speaks is not a marker of complicity. In fact, what we regard as the most important writing in Russian of the past two decades has taken the form of a rejection, explicit or implicit, of Putin's dictatorship, Russian nationalism and imperialism, homophobia, xenophobia, and the whole matrix of what official Russia now terms "patriotic" values. This writing has been global in scope, including authors from the many places in the world where Russian is spoken and from new and old emigrations. In addition to the many readers this literature has accrued over the past decades, it is fast gaining new ones, comprised of the hundreds of thousands who have fled the Russian Federation over the past year because they could not imagine continued existence in such a murderous country. We should add to these the many who, for various reasons, have remained in Russia yet regard the regime and the needless and horrific war it has unleashed with the same eyes as those who have observed it with disgust and dismay from without and those who have left. With this special issue, we hope to add the readers of WLT to this circle. Of course, this issue can only present the tip of the proverbial iceberg. So let us sketch out in a few words the contours of the iceberg as a whole—the contours of the "russophone literature of resistance," as we call it, drawing on important recent scholarship by Naomi Caffee, Marco Click for larger view View full resolution A protester witnessing the "Heart Bleeds" action near the Duma Tower, St. Petersburg, Russia, March 27, 2022. The babushka's sign reads: "There also is some good news: they still haven't banned the word 'peace.'" / Photo by Sergey Nikolaev Puleri, and others. In distinction from "Russian"—a contested term that may demarcate a nation, politically bounded territory, or its citizens—"russophone" refers to language alone. In the broadest sense, "russophone writing" includes far-flung and diverse communities that, perhaps, should not be regarded as a singular or unified entity at all. It embraces authors both within and without the Russian Federation. In some logical sense, russophone writing could be said to include authors of any political position at all who write in Russian—yet those aligned with the Russian Federation and its aggression would hardly agree to be described with this term. We propose that, within this large and variegated field, we may discern a globally networked community of writers working intently against the culture and politics of Putin's Russia. Indeed, the unifying feature of russophone literature of resistance is rejection of...