Trauma and Truth: Teaching Russian Literature on the Chechen Wars

Elena Pedigo Clark

Published by Academic Studies Press 2023

Trauma and Truth

Teaching Russian Literature on the Chechen Wars

Elena Pedigo Clark

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781644694275

Overview
Contents

About this book

The collapse of the USSR was relatively bloodless. The Chechen wars were not. Trauma and Truth examines key works about them by contemporary Russian-language authors, provides suggestions for teaching these challenging texts, and concludes with a discussion of what this trauma might mean for Russia today.

Author / Editor information

Pedigo Clark Elena :

Elena Pedigo Clark received a BA in International Studies from UNC-Charlotte, an MA in Russian Translation from Columbia University, and a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UNC-Chapel Hill. She is currently Assistant Professor of Russian at Wake Forest University.Elena Pedigo Clark received a BA in International Studies from UNC-Charlotte, an MA in Russian Translation from Columbia University, and a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UNC-Chapel Hill. She is currently Assistant Professor of Russian at Wake Forest University.

Reviews

“Elena Pedigo Clark’s Trauma and Truth is a welcome contribution to critical pedagogy in Russian literary and cultural studies… Trauma and Truth offers readers both critical insight into the contemporary literature and journalistic writing that emerged from the modern wars in Chechnya, as well as an embedded, carefully crafted model course on literature and the trauma of war. There is a deep symbiosis between these two constituent parts that resist hierarchy: Is it a volume of teaching-informed scholarship, or an example of researched-informed pedagogy? It is both… The volume’s empathetic approach to the “War is Hell” message of all four authors can and should be included in almost any course on contemporary Russian literature and culture designed for the current generation of students.”

— Thomas Jesús Garza, The Russian Review

“Contemporary Chechen War Literature: categorically, such a genre may appear daunting or out of reach of the literary critic or student alike. Yet, in Trauma and Truth, Clark gives us a precise and necessary examination of war trauma and its effect on the war stories, the war journalists, and the warriors who directly participated in the Chechen Wars of the late 1990s and early 2000s. In a clear and vivid scholarly voice, Clark performs a close reading of four leading Chechen or Russian authors and their books so that we may understand that trauma—not only in this body of literature, but in post-Soviet culture as a whole—is the dominant force in narrative representations of the wars. This book teaches the casual and careful reader alike that empathy and understanding, as Clark puts it, are the byproduct of such literary study. I can’t conceive of a better way to make sense of, and perhaps even prevent, future war.”

– Colonel David Buchanan, US Air Force, author of Going Scapegoat

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
A Note on Transliteration and Citation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
The Structure of This Book Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
1 A Brief Historical Background Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
2 The Literature of Trauma Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
3 Anna Politkovskaya: The Martyr of Russian Journalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
4 Mikail Eldin: Rebel With a Cause Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
5 Arkady Babchenko: “The Motherland Will Abandon You, Son. Always” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
6 Zakhar Prilepin: The Warrior- Bard of Russian Patriotism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	258

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 350
Keywords: Chechen war literature; Chechen wars; literature of trauma; Russian literature of trauma; Russian literature on Chechen wars; contemporary Russian war literature; contemporary Russian memoirs; Russian war memoirs; contemporary Russian non-fiction; contemporary Russian journalism

eBook

Published: January 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781644694275