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How the Soviet Man was Unmade: Cultural Fantasy and Male Subjectivity under Stalin

How the Soviet Man was Unmade: Cultural Fantasy and Male Subjectivity under Stalin 192 Book Reviews / Th e Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 37 (2010) 187–203 © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI 10.1163/187633210X536915 Lilya Kaganovsky. How the Soviet Man was Unmade: Cultural Fantasy and Male Subjectivity under Stalin (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008), 256 pp. $25.95 (pb). Th is is a creative study of Soviet textual and visual culture that explores how Soviet masculinity was “constructed and represented” in Stalin’s time (ix). Scholar Lilya Kaganovsky’s analysis of this artistic landscape begins with her revisiting standard interpretations of Stalin-era gender norms, which have tended to fi xate on a monolithic notion of the Soviet man. In particular, she urges her readers to move beyond the image of masculinity that requires a gymnastically-fi t body, an extreme devotion to the state and an ascetic attitude toward decadent sexuality or desire. Although this now well-known set of gender expectations is part of the story that Kaganovsky tells, it is only one aspect of her impressive and tremendously rich analysis. In Kaganovsky’s readings of Socialist Realist novels, fi lms, paintings and posters, the Stalinist male body – both in its potential and its limits – occupies center stage. In all of her texts, she http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Soviet and Post Soviet Review Brill

How the Soviet Man was Unmade: Cultural Fantasy and Male Subjectivity under Stalin

Friedman, Rebecca
The Soviet and Post Soviet Review , Volume 37 (2): 192 – Jan 1, 2010
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1075-1262
eISSN
1876-3324
DOI
10.1163/187633210X536915
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

192 Book Reviews / Th e Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 37 (2010) 187–203 © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI 10.1163/187633210X536915 Lilya Kaganovsky. How the Soviet Man was Unmade: Cultural Fantasy and Male Subjectivity under Stalin (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008), 256 pp. $25.95 (pb). Th is is a creative study of Soviet textual and visual culture that explores how Soviet masculinity was “constructed and represented” in Stalin’s time (ix). Scholar Lilya Kaganovsky’s analysis of this artistic landscape begins with her revisiting standard interpretations of Stalin-era gender norms, which have tended to fi xate on a monolithic notion of the Soviet man. In particular, she urges her readers to move beyond the image of masculinity that requires a gymnastically-fi t body, an extreme devotion to the state and an ascetic attitude toward decadent sexuality or desire. Although this now well-known set of gender expectations is part of the story that Kaganovsky tells, it is only one aspect of her impressive and tremendously rich analysis. In Kaganovsky’s readings of Socialist Realist novels, fi lms, paintings and posters, the Stalinist male body – both in its potential and its limits – occupies center stage. In all of her texts, she

Journal

The Soviet and Post Soviet Review – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2010

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