Kurt Vonnegut in the USSR - (Literatures, Cultures, Translation) by Sarah D Phillips (Hardcover)

About the Book

Explores the cult status popularity of Kurt Vonnegut in the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War era, uncovering the work of translators, cultural diplomacy, and socio-political and literary contexts at play in the 1970s.

Book Synopsis

Why, at the height of the Cold War, was Kurt Vonnegut freely published in Russian translation in the top literary journals and book series in the USSR?

Sarah D. Phillips explores a fascinating yet little-known chapter in the history of literary and cultural diplomacy during the Cold War: the popularity of the American author Kurt Vonnegut in the Soviet Union during the 1970s. Drawing from previously untouched archives of manuscripts, letters, and FBI files, along with her interviews of literary and cultural figures active then in the USSR, Phillips investigates several key yet little-explored questions about Vonnegut's "Soviet Chapter." What was it about Vonnegut's writing that so appealed to readers and literary critics in the 1970s Soviet Union? Were Vonnegut's works censored, and if so, what exactly fell prey to the infamous "Red Pencil"? How much was Vonnegut aware of his cult status in the land of Lenin?

Alongside an account of Cold War politics and literary cultural diplomacy, Kurt Vonnegut in the USSR is also a book about relationships - between Vonnegut and the Soviet reading public, between Vonnegut and the Soviet literary establishment, and most especially, between Vonnegut and the woman whose masterful translations were devoured by readers of Russian: the famous Soviet translator Rita Rait (1898-1989).

A work at the intersection of anthropology, history, and literary, translation, American, and Slavic studies, Kurt Vonnegut in the USSR is a close look at the unique contexts around an author and his readers, and the legacies of this literary cultural diplomacy in American and post-Soviet literary cultures today.

Review Quotes

"In this well-researched and entertaining book, Sarah D. Phillips shows how Kurt Vonnegut's profound whimsy and playful postmodernism resonated with Soviet readers. Slavists will get new insights into the late Soviet reading public, and Vonnegut fans will finally learn why the author was such a fan of Rita Rait." --Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University, USA

"Well researched and compelling, Kurt Vonnegut in the USSR provides valuable insight on the relationship between a writer and his translator, both striving to create cultural bridges during adversarial times." --World Literature Today

"Phillips's meticulously researched, absorbing, and, frankly, luminous book tells a fascinating and timely story of Cold War cultural diplomacy that was carried out not by official government actors, but by a writer, his translator, a community of readers, editors, and a small circle of cultural figures. Now more than ever, it is important to recognize a historical precedent in which literary connections and collaborations among like-minded individuals can foster community of shared values and good will amidst a hostile and divided world." --Julia Vaingurt, Professor of Russian Literature, University of Illinois Chicago, USA

"Kurt Vonnegut in the USSR deftly reframes Cold War literary diplomacy by exploring the experiences of translators, readers, and cultural intermediaries. Sarah D. Phillips combines anthropological and literary analysis in a compelling and broadly appealing study that challenges our prevailing understanding of how translated texts can reshape a nation's cultural identity." --Frederick H. White, Professor of Russian and Integrated Studies, Utah Valley University, USA

About the Author

Sarah D. Phillips is Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, USA. She is the author of two award-winning books, Women's Social Activism in the New Ukraine (2008) and Disability and Mobile Citizenship in Postsocialist Ukraine (2010).