• Russian Wanderer in the Post-Soviet Space

    Author(s):
    Katya Jordan (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    Russian/Eurasian Literature
    Subject(s):
    Russian literature, Russians--Social life and customs
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Ilichevsky, Homelessness, Matisse, Russian culture
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/60tv-1172
    Abstract:
    In "Russian Wanderer in the Post-Soviet Space: Homelessness in Ilichevsky's Matisse," Jordan examines Aleksandr Ilichevsky's conceptualization of homelessness as a state of existential not belonging that beset the author and his peers when the Soviet system collapsed in the early 1990s. The novel's protagonist mitigates his metaphorical homelessness by embracing actual homelessness, using it as a "part of a flight to a deeper awareness" (Widmer); yet Jordan also shows that homelessness in Matisse draws on the Russian spiritual tradition of strannichestvo, or departure from the secular world in pursuit of a sacred destination. By bringing into the discussion the writings of Dostoevsky, Berdyaev, and Ioann Lestvichnik, Jordan shows that although strannichestvo in Matisse has lost its religious underpinnings, it remains primarily a spiritual concept that allows an individual to break free from a mass society and gain the kind of fulfillment that the Soviet state promised but failed to deliver.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1163/22102396-05104008
    Publisher:
    Brill
    Pub. Date:
    2017-12-13
    Journal:
    Canadian-American Slavic Studies
    Volume:
    51
    Issue:
    4
    Page Range:
    481 - 501
    ISSN:
    0090-8290,2210-2396
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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