'Eaten for a word': the intersection of food and revolution in Russia
Date
2002
Authors
Holmes, Matthew John
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Abstract
This paper explores the linkages between food and revolution in Russia, from 1850 to the present. Food is examined as both material and symbol, and situated in notions of hunger, consumption, power relationships and identity formation. The paper beg ins by discussing the writing of the populist A.N. Engelgardt within the context of common views of the peasants in the late-nineteenth century. The second chapter looks at the 1905 and 1917 Revolutions as they relate to food politics and class identity through the writings of Andrei Bely and Victor Pelevin. The final chapter discusses the social and literary theory of M.M. Bakhtin, specifically of the carnival and banquet traditions, and reflects on the relationship between his philosophy and the historical reality of Stalin's government, the Gulag labour
camps, and the politics of consumption. The conclusion touches on some contemporary Russian literature, notably of Victor Pelevin and Andrey Kurkov, which respond to events since the Revolution of 1917.