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Soviet epic compositions of the 1930s and 1940s, the so-called noviny ("new songs"), have often been the subject of folkloristic controversy. This study tells the story of the rise and fall of the noviny in all its cultural richness and pathos, an instructive tale of the interaction of aesthetics and ideology.
List of contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Tampering with the Folkloric Evidence: Famous and Infamous European Precedents
Chapter 2: Oral Composition: Early Russian Observations and Assumptions
Chapter 3: Engaging with the Folk in Pre-Revolutionary Russia
Chapter 4: The Making of the Noviny
Chapter 5: The Poetics and Politics of the Noviny
Chapter 6: Devaluing the Noviny
Chapter 7: Late and Post-Soviet Folkloristic Assessment of the Noviny
Conclusion
Selected Bibliography
About the Author
About the author
Margaret Ziolkowski is professor of Russian at Miami University (Ohio). She has worked on topics in Russian literature ranging from the medieval to the contemporary.
Summary
Soviet epic compositions of the 1930s and 1940s, the so-called noviny (“new songs”), have often been the subject of folkloristic controversy. This study tells the story of the rise and fall of the noviny in all its cultural richness and pathos, an instructive tale of the interaction of aesthetics and ideology.