Dissertation

Cold War Kids in Neoliberal Dystopia: Transgression, Disruption and Fragmentation in the Work of Chuck Palahniuk and Victor Pelevin

Pavlović, Marija

2024

Overview

“Russia not amused at Red Army statue re-invented as Superman and friends Clenched teeth in Moscow over 1950s war memorial in Sofia given makeover by spray-painting street artist”“Sofia's communist war monument after a colourful makeover replacing troops with Superman, Robin, Santa, and Ronald McDonald. Photograph: Stoyan Nenov/Reuters”Both born in 1962, in the peak period of geopolitical tension dividing the West and the East (marked by the nuclear threats of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall and the Sino-Soviet split), two authors ‘from each side of the Wall’ would grow up to become highly influential contemporary writers of global impact and relevance. With literary careers developing from the first decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, both Chuck Palahniuk (USA) and Victor Pelevin (Soviet Union; Russia) started resonating new and exciting possibilities of post-postmodernist developments. While considerable theoretical attention has already been given to both Palahniuk and Pelevin, my research intends to explore their works through a comparative lens, offering fresh insights into the shared literary frameworks that bind them. This comparative analysis seeks not only to highlight the commonalities in their depictions of contemporary life but also to understand how their respective geopolitical backgrounds guide their narratives. Living and working in countries that were equally shaped by and contributed to the narratives of the Cold War, as well as the economic and geopolitical climate of the time, they provide a valuable opportunity to compare the similarities in literary tendencies that result directly from the political, social, and cultural acceleration in the age of overwhelming information flow and predominantly trash culture. By analyzing and comparing their work within the context of global politics, neoliberal economic models, and the post-truth age, this dissertation aims to highlight their shared literary techniques and themes. It examines whether and how, in two pivotal oeuvres from the last years of the 20thcentury, signs of literary trends that would flourish in the first decades of the 21stcentury can already be discerned. I interpret these works as phenomena of a transitional period, significant for formulating a recognized movement that emerges from it, which I have termed hypertrashrealism.Note on the TextAs the language of this dissertation is English, most of the included quotations are provided also in English. However, as several of Victor Pelevin’s novels and two books by Ilya Kabakov have not been translated into English yet, I have either read them in my mother tongue, Serbian, or in German, while the submitted quotes come in the original language of these books, that is, the Russian language.Problem Statement and Justification of the Research ProjectPostmodernism, officially inaugurated as a literary movement in the USA only to be spread worldwide, has long been one of the prevailing frameworks across different fields of art and culture, as a direct response to the post-World-War-II reality. Following the revolutionary changes in narrative brought by modernism, it developed into a powerful and diverse artistic paradigm, with a new twist in its attempt to speak out for the voices of the transitional period.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund (1903-1969) / American literature / Baudrillard, Jean / Bauman, Zygmunt (1925-2017) / Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002) / Cultural heritage / Democracy / History / Horkheimer, Max (1895-1973) / Modernism / Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-1950) / Palahniuk, Chuck / Politics
• ISBN: 9798304977845