Mimesis

The second part of Valery Podoroga's masterly work on the politics of literature and how it is used to construct the world. With a focus on the revolutionary works of Andrei Platonov and the futurist collective Oberiu, Podoroga shows how profoundly the Soviet experiment overturned the traditional expectation of fiction and poetry. He explores how the production of this work was intensely interwoven with the political and historical debates of the times.

This volume expands on his critical explanation of the analytic anthropology of literature. He examines how literature can be used in 'world-building', both in what happens inside the narrative and in the way it reflects the external world. He also investigates how the work functions outside of its times, both as a means to project into the future and as a document of a former age. How are we to read the past through these works of the imagination?

With an introductory essay from the author’s daughter, Ioulia Podoroga, and a preface from Frederic James, Mimesis provides a profound exploration of literature's impact on and interaction with the world.