{"product_id":"russia-on-the-edge-edith-w-clowes-9780801477256","title":"Russia on the Edge","description":"\u003cp\u003eSince the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russians have confronted a major crisis of identity. Soviet ideology rested on a belief in historical progress, but the post-Soviet imagination has obsessed over territory. Indeed, geographical metaphors--whether axes of north vs. south or geopolitical images of center, periphery, and border--have become the signs of a different sense of self and the signposts of a new debate about Russian identity. In \u003ci\u003eRussia on the Edge\u003c\/i\u003e, Edith W. Clowes argues that refurbished geographical metaphors and imagined geographies provide a useful perspective for examining post-Soviet debates about what it means to be Russian today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eClowes lays out several sides of the debate. She takes as a backdrop the strong criticism of Soviet Moscow and its self-image as uncontested global hub by major contemporary writers, among them Tatyana Tolstaya and Viktor Pelevin. The most vocal, visible, and colorful rightist ideologue, Aleksandr Dugin, the founder of neo-Eurasianism, has articulated positions contested by such writers and thinkers as Mikhail Ryklin, Liudmila Ulitskaia, and Anna Politkovskaia, whose works call for a new civility in a genuinely pluralistic Russia. Dugin's extreme views and their many responses--in fiction, film, philosophy, and documentary journalism--form the body of this book.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eRussia on the Edge\u003c\/i\u003e, literary and cultural critics will find the keys to a vital post-Soviet writing culture. For intellectual historians, cultural geographers, and political scientists the book is a guide to the variety of post-Soviet efforts to envision new forms of social life, even as a reconstructed authoritarianism has taken hold. The book introduces nonspecialist readers to some of the most creative and provocative of present-day Russia's writers and public intellectuals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Edith W. Clowes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0801477255\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780801477256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Cornell University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/15\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 200\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.66lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.50d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReference and Research Bk News\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2011 pg. 175","brand":"Edith W. Clowes","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43926124200191,"sku":"9780801477256","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_486fe1f8-e5f8-46a8-86f5-e066612caec2.jpg?v=1681081338","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/russia-on-the-edge-edith-w-clowes-9780801477256","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}