Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More

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Soviet socialism was based on paradoxes that were revealed by the peculiar experience of its collapse To the people who lived in that system the collapse seemed both completely unexpected and completely unsurprising At the moment of collapse it suddenly became obvious that Soviet life had always seemed simultaneously eternal and stagnating, vigorous and ailing, bleak and full of promise Although these characteristics may appear mutually exclusive, in fact they were mutually constitutive This book explores the paradoxes of Soviet life during the period of late socialism 1960s 1980s through the eyes of the last Soviet generation.Focusing on the major transformation of the 1950s at the level of discourse, ideology, language, and ritual, Alexei Yurchak traces the emergence of multiple unanticipated meanings, communities, relations, ideals, and pursuits that this transformation subsequently enabled His historical, anthropological, and linguistic analysis draws on rich ethnographic material from Late Socialism and the post Soviet period.The model of Soviet socialism that emerges provides an alternative to binary accounts that describe that system as a dichotomy of official culture and unofficial culture, the state and the people, public self and private self, truth and lie and ignore the crucial fact that, for many Soviet citizens, the fundamental values, ideals, and realities of socialism were genuinely important, although they routinely transgressed and reinterpreted the norms and rules of the socialist state. Free Read [ Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More ] By [ Alexei Yurchak ] – kino-fada.fr Dense, theoretical study on Soviet society, and ideological discourse from the 1950s to the 1970s Focus in particular on the structural contradictions of the Marxist Leninist party state, and the task achieving an enlightened, critical, autonomous human beings through the control of the CPSU After Stalin died in 1953 and Khrushchev condemned him in 1956, there was no real authority position to refine party doctrine, and so political speech became circular, self serving, ritualized, almost Dense, theoretical study on Soviet society, and ideological discourse from the 1950s to the 1970s Focus in particular on the structural contradictions of the Marxist Leninist party state, and the task achieving an enlightened, critical, autonomous human beings through the control of the CPSU After Stalin died in 1953 and Khrushchev condemned him in 1956, there was no real authority position ...Taught this book for my Soviet culture course, my students were bored silly Partly Yurchak s writing cultural anthropology, cultural studies, the whole lingo, etc but also, andto blame, was the relatability factor, the so what question As a study of Everyman s modus operandi in a dictatorship, this book is brilliant, and relevant not just for the late Soviet regime, though it does apply only to a regime that s precisely late been around long enough for people to have worked out a Taught this book for my Soviet culture course, my students were bored silly Partly Yurchak s writing cultural anthropology, cultural studies, the whole lingo, etc but also, andto blame, was the relatability factor, the so what question As a study of Everyman s modus operandi in a dict... 1960 1980 , , , , 1980 1960 1980 , , , , 1980, ,,, ,, , ,One of rarest cases I gave up I am an experienced non fiction reader and was attracted to the theme Moreover, i m a native speaker of Russian, thus weren t irritated by endless italicized Russian words in Latin letters One thing however made me throw in the towel I realized this is a PhD thesis and should be marketed like that A superb, extremely well researched, but still a very scholarly work I gave it numerous tries, thinking that maybe that chapter on Komsomol inner workings cannot be One of rarest cases I gave up I am an experienced non fiction reader and was attracted to the theme Moreover, i m a native speaker of Russian, thus weren t irritated by endless italicized Russian words in Latin letters One thing however made me throw in the towel I realized this is a PhD thesis and should be marketed like that A superb, extremely well researched, but still a very scholarly work I gave it numerous tries, thinking that maybe that chapter on Komsomol inner workings cannot be written anyinteresting and readable than that...I was initially clued into this book after watching Hypernormalization and reading the surrounding interviews Adam Curtis gave in support of the film He explicitly references this book and some of its general concepts, such as the normalizaiton of specifically reproduced authoritarian language and the performative constative elements of behavior in regards to this era As a newcomer to this type of academic cultural commentary, some of the arguments Yurchak proposes in this book were probably a I was initially clued into this book after watching Hypernormalization and reading the surrounding interviews Adam Curtis gave in support of the film He explicitly references this book and some of its general concepts, such as the normalizaiton of specifically reproduced authoritarian language and the performative constative elements of behavior in regards to this era As a newcomer to this type of academic cultural commentary, some of the arguments Yurchak proposes in this book were probably a bitnovel to me than the average reader This is really my only point of reference into this world so if what he is saying is really misguided I wouldn t...Yurchak takes performative theory in an exciting and necessary direction Stepping away from recent arguments that entangle performative theory with psychoanalysis, Yurchak coins the performative shift to describe over saturated and hypernormalized performative environments In late Socialist Russia, events such as public parades and political meetings lose their content and effectiveness because they are no longer read as performatives stemming from an authoritative subject, instead they have Yurchak takes performative theory in an exciting and necessary direction Stepping away from recent arguments that entangle performative theory with psychoanalysis, Yurchak coins the performative shift to describe over saturated and hypernormalized performative environments In late Socialist Russia, events such as public parades and politic...Coming from post Soviet space, I was already familiar with many events, practices, and rituals that Yurchak describes Still, reading this book was a very pleasurable experience Not only does he nicely grasp all the peculiarities and paradoxes of late socialism, Yurchak also provides quite elaborate and insightful explanations for his data He has a lot of examples and stories to tell, but he doesn t overwhelm the reader everything is neatly and logically organized and framed with theory If Coming from post Soviet space, I was already familiar with many events, practices, and rituals that Yurchak describes Still, reading this book was a very pleasurable experience Not only does he nicely grasp all the peculiarities and paradoxes of late socialism, Yurchak also provides quite elaborate and insightful explanations f...This book would have deserved six stars if the first section could be removed The theoretical section was a little high handed, but I still think about Soviet records pressed onto old X ray plates So much of the content is fascinating. , , , , .In Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, Alexei Yurchak sets out to uncover why Soviet citizens were prepared for the Union s collapse despite believing that it could never happen Eschewing binary models, the author argues that all discourse is comprised of two dimensions a constative one that describes reality and a performative one that transforms it and introduces new effects into the world Following Stalin s death in the 1950s, Soviet discourse shifted to emphasize the performativ In Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, Alexei Yurchak sets out to uncover why Soviet citizens were prepared for the Union s collapse despite believing that it could never happen Eschewing binary models, the author argues that all discourse is comprised of two dimensions a constative one that describes reality and a performative one that transforms it and introduces new effects into the world Following Stalin s death in the 1950s, Soviet discourse shift...

Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More
  • English
  • 01 December 2017
  • Paperback
  • 331 pages
  • 0691121176
  • Alexei Yurchak
  • Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More