“What Home Was Like in the Soviet Union”: The Literary Thirdspace of the Soviet Home in the Contemporary Children’s Novels Breaking Stalin’s Nose, Arcady’s Goal, and Vremja Vsegda Xorošee

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“What Home Was Like in the Soviet Union”

The Literary Thirdspace of the Soviet Home in the Contemporary Children’s

Novels Breaking Stalin’s Nose, Arcady’s Goal, and Vremja Vsegda Xorošee

MA Thesis in European Studies Graduate School for Humanities

Universiteit van Amsterdam X X

Main Supervisor: dr. Sudha Rajagopalan Second Supervisor: dr. Erik van Ree

July 2017

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Svetlana Boym (1994)1

1_B_OYM_,_{S.
(1994).
Common
Places:
Mythologies
of
Everyday
Life
in
Russia.
Cambridge/London:
Harvard
University
Press,
pp.
145-‐146.} Once I was asked what were my earliest memories of growing up in the

same room with my parents. The first thing I remembered was the texture of the curtain (port’era) that partitioned our shared room. The port’era of my

childhood was heavy and dark yellow, with an ornamental appliqué. I re-‐ member overhearing the voices of my parents and their friends and the songs of Okudzhava and Vysotsky, but most of all I remember the port’era

itself. So much for the primal scenes.

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Abstract

This master thesis explores the depiction of the Soviet home and its near surroundings in the contemporary children’s novels Breaking Stalin’s Nose (2011) and Arcady’s Goal (2014) by Eu-‐ gene Yelchin, and Vremja Vsegda Xorošee (2014) by Andrej Žvalevskij and Evgenija Pasternak. Following Edward Soja’s insights on the concept of Thirdspace, I seek to elucidate that the imag-‐ es of the Soviet home embrace a multifaceted trope of spatial inscriptions, historical associa-‐ tions, social relations, and political realities. The principal aim of this thesis is to examine what kind of Thirdspace of the Soviet home – and the garden/dvor as its extension – is presented to the child reader through the metatext and paratexts, and subsequently, to analyse what these real-‐and-‐imagined spaces tell him about his own, contemporary surroundings. Spatiality is used as the primary interpretive device, through which the interaction with the historical and societal dimensions of the narratives will be studied. In doing so, this thesis seeks to address the need for a more comprehensive examination of the domestic setting as a space of Soviet childhood in contemporary literature for the young reader.

Keywords: children’s literature, child reader, domestic setting, Edward Soja, home, ideology,

place, Soviet childhood, space, spatiality, Thirdspace.

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Acknowledgements

First, I would like to thank my supervisor dr. Sudha Rajagopalan for her guidance in formulating the structure and content of this thesis, and for her recommendations during the writing pro-‐ cess. Furthermore, I would like to thank dr. Christian Noack for his help with structuring my ideas and thoughts, and all of my professors at the University of Amsterdam for everything they have taught me over the last year.

Secondly, I would like to thank Eva Devos at Iedereen Leest who helped me access source mate-‐ rials that were difficult to obtain, found me additional books of whose existence I was unaware, and who provided me with a research space and strong coffee in Antwerp.

Thirdly, I would like to thank my second readers, who have taken the time to read and re-‐read my chapters, listened to my mental leaps from place to space and back, and have advised me throughout the writing process.

Lastly, I owe a particular debt of gratitude to the Dutch historian and author Jaap ter Haar (1922-‐1998), through whose words I travelled to the real-‐and-‐imagined world of Leningrad for the first time, and to whom this thesis is dedicated. It was his novel Boris that awakened my in-‐ terest in the Soviet Union, and that helped shape my focus throughout my academic career. The landscape of his book will forever occupy a space in my childhood memories.

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A Note on Translation and Transliteration

All translations from Dutch to English and Russian to English are mine, unless otherwise indicat-‐ ed. Where the established English spellings of names, topographical locations and titles exist, these have been given preference: e.g. “Khrushchev” rather than “Xruščëv” and “kolkhoz” instead of “kolxoz”. In the case of less familiar words, Russian has been transliterated according to the scientific transliteration system.

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Chapter One: Itinerary

1.1 Introduction

It was when I was around the age of eight that I first read something about a country named the Soviet Union. In the local library, a book cover with a young boy in a winter coat, bright red scarf and thick fur hat caught my attention. That evening, in the ray of light coming from under my bedroom door, I travelled to the world in which the boy, Boris, grew up. Through Boris, a chil-‐ dren’s book written in 1966 by the Dutch author Jaap ter Haar, I learned what it must have been like to live, play and dream in Leningrad during the siege between 1941 and 1944. The dark and dreary portrayal of Boris’ everyday life made a lasting impression on the young me. Ter Haar’s words incited my imagination to visualise the spatial dimensions of this unknown city, and to create a “map” of what the Soviet Union must have looked like. This imaginary spatiality was persistent; I still can recall the images of Boris’ world that my mind fabricated. It only gradually started to transform after indirectly confronting this imagined place with new literary and filmic representations of the Soviet space, and after strolling along the streets of Saint Petersburg my-‐ self.

One could argue that in recalling a certain book one has read during his or her child-‐ hood,2_{it
is
particularly
the
setting
of
the
story
that
will
be
remembered.
The
depicted
places
are}

memorable and riveting, and often remain part of our vivid childhood memories.3_{What
this
per-‐}

sonal example suggests is that the spatial dimensions of the Soviet space that are presented in a children’s novel affect the child’s creation of an imagined cultural landscape of the Soviet Union as a place to live and grow up. In this respect, they do not only function as the background against which the story is set, but serve a metaphorical function as well. Through references such as “the dying Leningrad, too proud and too courageous to stop the fight,” the young reader of Boris is stimulated not to think of the city as a schematic construct of bricks, buildings and roads, but rather as a heroic space that adopted the human qualities of the character of its inhab-‐ itants.4_{The
city
thus
comes
to
function
as
one
of
the
protagonists
of
the
story.}

2_{For
the
sake
of
readability,
from
now
on
I
will
use
the
masculine
pronoun
when
I
refer
to
“one”,
“the
reader”
or
“the
child”,
instead} of constantly using “his or her” or “he or she”.

3_D_EWAN_,_{P.
(2004).
The
House
as
Setting,
Symbol,
and
Structural
Motif
in
Children’s
Literature.
Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter:
The} Edwin Mellen Press, p. 1.

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As Robert T. Tally Jr. argues in Spatiality, literature functions as a form of mapping. It of-‐ fers its readers a description of a place, which situates them in a kind of imaginary space, and provides them with points of reference by which they can orient themselves, understand the world in which they live, and get a sense of the worlds in which others live or have lived.5_Tally’s

argument offers several valuable insights that need some clarification. Firstly, he compares the act of writing literary texts to the act of creating actual maps. “[These texts] allow us to create mental images of the places they describe, even in the absence of actual illustrations,” he ex-‐ plains by citing Ricardo Padrón.6_{Secondly,
he
distinguishes
between
place
and
space,
the
former}

being a material and palpable location, the latter a more abstract and symbolic set of senses and feelings that this location is associated with (on the difference between place and space, see 1.4 Definitions). Lastly, Tally suggests that the created imaginary space does not only envelop the ways in which a reader understands and visualises the world within the text; it also could be seen as a trope through which he is enabled to make sense of the world outside the pages of the book – his own spatiotemporal surroundings.

Even though Tally discusses the characteristics and implications of spatiality in litera-‐ ture in general, I would argue that his findings are particularly suitable for elaborating on the dynamics between place and space in the subdomain of children’s literature. This assumption is grounded on the premise that childhood is a socially constructed period in which people, within the confines of the cultural community in which they grow up, learn about the nature of the world, how to live in it, how to relate to other people, what and how to think, and, as literary critic John Stephens has put it, how to render the world intelligible (for a more detailed discus-‐ sion of the concepts “childhood” and “children’s literature”, see 1.4 Definitions).7

On the one hand, this means that the cultural work of children’s fiction is more likely to have an educational function than its adult counterpart. Even though a narrative almost always contains (implicit) references to a certain cultural framework, in the case of literature for chil-‐ dren, these social, political and/or moral references are usually formulated more explicitly in order to instil the target audience which values are important within their society.8_{On
the
other,}

this suggests that the depiction of a certain space is likely to have a more powerful and lasting effect in the case of a child reader. Without perceiving the child as a tabula rasa on which the imaginary space can be “imprinted”, I do believe that a child reader is more inclined to visually

5_T_ALLY_J_R_.,_R._{T.
(2013).
Spatiality.
London/New
York:
Routledge,
p.
2.} 6_{Idem,
pp.
2-‐3.}

7_S_TEPHENS_,_{J.
(1992).
Language
and
Ideology
in
Children’s
Fiction.
London/New
York:
Longman,
p.
8.} 8_{Idem,
p.
8-‐9.}

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internalise the described settings, because his frame of reference is narrower and less developed than that of an adult reader.9

The overarching topic of this master thesis will be the depiction of the domestic setting and its near surroundings in contemporary children’s fiction on growing up in the Soviet Un-‐ ion.10_{Following
Pauline
Dewan’s
insights
that
the
prominence
of
houses
in
children’s
novels
has}

a powerful imaginative impact upon the reader, usually functioning as the primary point of ref-‐ erence of a child, protagonist and narrative, I have chosen to specifically focus on these literary landscapes in the objects of study (see 1.2 Objects of Study). The topic is situated on the cross-‐ roads between the realm of children’s literature criticism and the field of spatial literary studies that analyses the significance of place and space in literary and popular texts, and that examines the interplay between individual subjects, the space in which they lived, and other narrative aspects such as time and focalisation. Even though many studies have been conducted into the function of spatial settings in adult literature (see 2.1 The Spatial Turn), only few have been done in children’s fiction. Furthermore, the focus is mainly on spatiality in English language nov-‐ els and on stories that are situated within the English-‐speaking world. Little critical analysis of the characteristics of Soviet space in (contemporary) children’s literature has yet been under-‐ taken.

Nevertheless, I do think that it is important to study in which ways this historical space is remembered and represented. It shows us how the author is influenced by – and subsequently contributes to – a cultural construction of what it must have been like to experience childhood within the Soviet Union. The symbolic spatial elements of a narrative, in this respect, tell us more about which norms and values a society associates with the sociocultural construct of the Soviet Union, and how they relate to the norms and values of the author and intended reader’s own, contemporary surroundings. The fact that these novels are written and read in a specific, com-‐ plex cultural situation that might be different from the setting in which the story takes place, means that explicitly or implicitly, an element of comparison is amalgamated into the narrative. In this respect, the examination of the role of spatiality in children’s novels can show us more about how the authors perceive “there” and “then” in relation to “here” and “now”.

The principal aim of this thesis is to examine what kind of cultural trope of the Soviet home, garden and dvor is presented to the child reader by the spatial inscriptions in the objects

9_J_OOSEN_,_{V.
(2011).
Critical
and
Creative
Perspectives
on
Fairy
Tales:
An
Intertextual
Dialogue
Between
Fairy-‐Tale
Scholarship
and}

Postmodern Retellings. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, p. 52.

10_{With
contemporary
children’s
fiction
I
refer
to
novels
that
were
written
and
published
after
the
collapse
of
the
Soviet
Union
in} 1991.

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of study, and to analyse what these real-‐and-‐imagined spaces tell him about his own, contempo-‐ rary surroundings. In doing so, this thesis seeks to address the need for a more comprehensive examination of the domestic setting as a space of Soviet childhood in contemporary novels for the young reader.

1.2 Objects of Study

In order to discuss the literary representations of the domestic environment as a space of Soviet childhood in contemporary children’s literature, I have chosen the following objects of study: 1) The historical novel Breaking Stalin’s Nose (2011), written and illustrated by the Russian-‐born American author Eugene Yelchin, which is set in Moscow during the early 1950s, and shows a boy’s disillusion with Comrade Stalin after his father is “unjustly” arrested; 2) Yelchin’s second historical novel Arcady’s Goal (2014) about a twelve-‐year-‐old boy, who grows up in an orphan-‐ age for children of the enemies of the state at the eve of the Second World War; 3) Vremja Vseg-‐

da Xorošee11_{(2010),
a
time-‐travel
story
by
the
Belorussian
authors
Andrej
Žvalevskij
and
Evgen-‐}

ija Pasternak in which a boy from 1980 and a girl from 2018 switch places, and discover what their childhood could have been like if they would have grown up in another era.

Even though these literary works are written for different audiences and focus on differ-‐ ent periods of the Soviet past, I do think that this selection contains several parallels that make for an interesting analysis. Firstly, all novels are intended for children between the age of nine and twelve. Secondly, the works are written by authors that grew up in the Soviet Union them-‐ selves. They have personal memories on their childhood within this historical space, but are currently living in another geographical (American) or temporal (post-‐Soviet) context. Thirdly, the authors chose to depict everyday life in the Soviet Union through the eyes of a young protag-‐ onist. In the three objects of study, the main characters reflect on the space in which they grow up, and explicitly describe how they perceive the settings around them. Fourthly, as Dewan has argued, both historical novels and time-‐travel stories often provide the protagonist with a per-‐ spective on the problems encountered in the world that he or she inhabits.12_{Fifthly,
in
the
cho-‐}

sen texts, the journey from one setting to another by the main character signals some form of character development.13_{By
leaving
the
first
house
behind
and
discovering
new
settings,
the}

11_{There
is
no
official
English
translation
of
this
book
title,
which
is
why
I
have
decided
to
refer
to
its
transcribed
notation.
One
could} translate the title as “It Is Always a Good Time”.

12_D_EWAN_{,
The
House
as
Setting,
p.
14.} 13_{Idem,
pp.
10-‐11.}

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protagonists’ perspectives on the home situation gradually change. Lastly, these works enable the reader to compare the spatial dimensions of “there” and “then” to “here” and “now”, through the metatextual discourse itself or with the help of the paratexts that surround them (see 1.3 Methodological Approach).

1.3 Methodological Approach

My approach to studying what kind of symbolic trope of the domestic setting is presented in the objects of study will be twofold. Firstly, I will concentrate on a close reading of the literary texts themselves. I will use Mieke Bal’s Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative as a prac-‐ tical set of tools that help me to analyse which functions the spatial inscriptions exercise, and to examine how the depicted settings interact with the other narrative elements of the novels.14

According to Bal, the space in which a character is situated – or is precisely not situated – should be seen as the “frame” of a story, which often has a highly symbolic function.15_{In
this
respect,
as}

she indicates, space is never an isolated narrative device; the setting always reflects, symbolises or sets in motion other narrative aspects of a story. In many texts, space thus becomes thema-‐ tised, functioning rather as an acting place than a place of action.16_{Even
though
the
chapters
on}

location and space only take up a small amount of pages in her book, they have helped me to specify and sharpen my own interpretive response to the objects of study. In line with Bal’s structure, I will examine what kind of information the domestic setting provides the reader with, which function the spatial inscriptions serve, how the main character relates to his or her sur-‐ roundings, and how the house and its surroundings interact with the other narrative aspects. Secondly, I will analyse the spatial inscriptions in the paratexts that surround, support and extend the so-‐called metatexts. Following Valeria Pellatt’s insights, with the term “paratext” I refer to “any material additional to, appended to or external to the core text which has func-‐ tions of explaining, defining, instructing, or supporting, adding background information, or the relevant opinions and attitudes of scholars, translators or reviewers.”17_{In
the
case
of
Yelchin’s}

works, I have chosen to do a close reading and viewing of the illustrations, the epilogue and in-‐ terview with the author that are included in the books, and the website that augments Breaking

Stalin’s Nose. In the case of Vremja Vsegda Xorošee, there are significantly less paratexts that add

14_B_AL_,_{M.
(2009).
Narratology:
Introduction
to
the
Theory
of
Narrative.
3}rd_{edition.
Toronto/Buffalo/London:
University
of
Toronto} Press.

15_{Idem,
p.
136-‐137.} 16_{Idem,
p.
139.}

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an additional layer of significance to the depicted trope, causing me to solely focus on an analysis of the preface.

I would argue that these paratexts have a significant impact on the reader’s approach to the core text. For example, in the case of the preface, the reader already starts to imagine and visualise the spatial framework in which the story is going to take place.18_{The
illustrations}

throughout the books, furthermore, visualise and elucidate the setting that has been put to words. The accompanying website, providing the young reader/visitor with additional (visual) information on the protagonist’s everyday life invite him to explore the world in which the char-‐ acters grow up. In the case of my chosen objects of study, I would argue that the most important function of these paratexts is to fit in the presented “alien” spatial elements into the frame of reference that a contemporary child has. By analysing them, it becomes clear how the authors seek to “translate” the presented cultural trope to the intended reader.

1.4 Definitions

Phrasings such as “childhood”, “children’s literature” and “the child reader” one could use on a daily basis without specifying which period of a life or what kind of literature or reader fits the terminology precisely. One could assume that his interlocutor or reader more or less under-‐ stands what he means when he talks or writes about his childhood. However, in the field of liter-‐ ary analysis – or in the domain of childhood studies for that matter – there is not a single or widely used definition of these concepts. A second set of concepts that is often used inter-‐ changeably in everyday language, and that is important to discuss here is that of the relation between place and space. Again, the questions “what is space?” and “what makes a place a place?” are answered differently by various scholars. Considering the fact that I will refer to the-‐ se concepts and terms on a regular basis, it is necessary to define how I understand them.19

Childhood20

As literary critic Peter Hollindale suggests, the period of childhood should be seen as a sociocul-‐ tural construct.21_{It
is
defined
by
the
dominant
social
mythology
of
a
particular
community
that}

18_{Idem,
pp.
2-‐3.}

19_{I
have
considered
several
alternative
academic
explanations
and
interpretations
before
choosing
one
that
fits
the
purposes
of
my} study best. I have listed them in the footnotes.

20_{For
other
definitions
see
for
instance
Hugh
Cunningham’s
Children
and
Childhood
in
Western
Society
since
1500
(1995),
Colin
Hey-‐} wood’s A History of Childhood (2001), Anne Higonnet’s Pictures of Innocence: The History and Crisis of Ideal Childhood (1998), and Nicholas Tucker’s The Child and the Book: A Psychological and Literary Exploration (1990, Canto edition).

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varies in accordance with the prevailing historical period, and differs from one place to anoth-‐ er.22_{Matthew
Grenby
even
goes
as
far
as
to
imply
that
the
length
of
childhood
is
related
to
gen-‐}

der, religion and social class.23_{I
would
argue
that
these
definitions
tie
in
with
Catriona
Kelly’s}

observations on the concept of Soviet childhood, who argues that

[c]hildhood was shaped by a central tension between a view of childhood as joyful and sac-‐ rosanct, of the child’s world as a psychological domain of innocence and wonder, to be pre-‐ served intact as long as possible; and a view of childhood as the material of future adult-‐ hood, to be disciplined and shaped as early as might be practicable.24

Considering the fact that Kelly’s findings acknowledge the specific features of Soviet childhood, features that play an important role in the objects of study as well, this definition will be implied when I refer to the concept of Soviet childhood.

Children’s Literature25

In order to decide whether a novel belongs to the domain of children’s literature, Hollindale has come up with a classification system of six categories: it is the intention of those involved in the book production, it appeals to contemporary children, it appealed to children in the past, it is relevant for or accessible to children, it makes “meaningful transactions with children” possible, or it enables a “successful voluntary action” between “any text and any one child.”26_{Even
though}

in many instances an overlap between these categories occurs, I would argue that especially the first classification significantly influences whether a text is considered as children’s literature, since the authors, publishers and booksellers decide how and for whom it is going to be present-‐ ed. This assumption also ties in with Peter Hunt’s suggestion that one can define children’s liter-‐ ature by focusing on the cultural expectations that a society has of what children should be of-‐ fered as a reading matter.27

21_H_OLLINDALE_,_{P.
(1997).
Signs
of
Childness
in
Children’s
Books.
Stroud:
Thimble
Press,
p.
13.}

22_C_AMPBELL_,_{J.
(1996).
Heroes
and
Heroines
in
Soviet
Children’s
Literature
of
the
1980s.
In:
M.
Machet,
S.
Olën,
T.
van
der
Walt,
eds.,}

Other Worlds, Other Lives: Proceedings of the International Conference on Children’s Literature, vol. 2. Pretoria: Unisa Press, pp. 32-‐54.

23_G_RENBY_,_M._{O.
(2011).
The
Child
Reader:
1700-‐1840.
Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press,
p.
2.}

24_K_ELLY_,_{C.
(2007).
Children’s
World:
Growing
Up
in
Russia,
1980-‐1991.
New
Haven/London:
Yale
University
Press,
p.
570.} 25_{For
other
definitions
see
for
instance
Dennis
Butt’s
Stories
and
Society:
Children’s
Literature
in
its
Social
Context
(1992),
Matthew} Grenby’s The Child Reader: 1700-‐1840 (2011), and Perry Nodelman’s The Hidden Adult: Defining Children’s Literature (2008). 26_H_OLLINDALE_{,
Signs
of
Childness,
pp.
27-‐28.}

27_H_UNT_,_{P.
(1996).
Defining
Children’s
Literature.
In:
S.
A.
Egoff,
G.
T.
Stubbs,
L.
F.
Ashley,
eds.,
Only
Connect:
Readings
on
Children’s}

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The Child Reader28

In Ideology and the Children’s Book, Hollindale emphasises that children are individuals, and that they have different tastes.29_{They
differ
from
each
other
in
terms
of
age,
gender,
language,
social}

class, and/or religion, to name but a few examples, which means that the same book may mean different things to different children. In this respect, a uniform audience or a “theoretical child” that encompasses all young readers does not exist.30_{Despite
the
fact
that
I
completely
agree}

with Hollindale, I nevertheless have decided to use the terminology of “the reader” in my thesis. This is because I will focus on the literary narratives themselves, and not on the composition or characteristics of the audiences of these texts. Therefore, when I write of “the reader”, I refer to the intended audience that the author has in mind.

Place and Space31

In his internationally acclaimed Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, the geographer Yi-‐Fu Tuan argues that both ideas require each other for definition: what begins as a concrete and material place becomes a space once we get to know it and endow it with meaning.32_This

endowment takes places through various modes of experiencing, from passive senses of smell, taste, and hearing to active visual and touchable perception.33_{When
one
refers
to
a
place,
one}

describes the buildings and streets he sees, the honking of cars that his ears notice, and the smell of petrol that penetrates his nostrils. Space, in this respect, is something more difficult to grasp: it is an indirect mode of experiencing, a more symbolic and metaphorical one that needs another place or space to be compared to in order to register its characteristics.34_{Even
though
the
saying}

is officially “there is no place like home”, I would argue that a coupling of place-‐house and space-‐ home is actually more logical. Considering the fact that I will examine the cultural trope of the domestic setting that is presented in the objects of study, it is especially those symbolic and rela-‐ tive potentialities of space that I am interested in.

28_{For
other
definitions
see
for
instance
Matthew
Grenby’s
The
Child
Reader:
1700-‐1840
(2011),
Heidi
Morrison’s
The
Global
History}

of Childhood Reader (2012), and Margot Stafford’s chapter in the book Space and Place in Children’s Literature: 1789 to the Present

(2015).

29_H_OLLINDALE_,_{P.
(1988).
Ideology
and
the
Children’s
Book.
Stroud:
The
Thimble
Press,
p.
3.} 30_{Idem,
pp.
8-‐9.}

31_{For
other
definitions
see
for
instance
Leonard
Lutwack’s
The
Role
of
Place
in
Literature
(1984)
and
the
study
Space
and
Place
in}

Children’s Literature: 1789 to the Present (2015), edited by Maria Sachiko et al.

32_T_UAN_,_{Y.
(1977).
Space
and
Place:
The
Perspective
of
Experience.
Minneapolis:
University
of
Minnesota
Press,
p.
6.} 33_{Idem,
p.
11.}

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1.5 Chapter Outline

In the following chapter, I will define, explain and discuss the theoretical framework I am going to use – Edward Soja’s theory on Thirdspace – and situate his work within the field of spatial literary analysis. Subsequently, in chapter three, I will outline the historical context, elaborating on the private-‐public dichotomy in terms of the Soviet housing system and touching upon the characteristics of the garden and dvor.35

In chapter four, I will map the primary points of reference of the protagonists, may it be a kommunalka,36_{a
children’s
home
or
the
relatively
private
domestic
setting
of
the
one-‐family}

apartment, through a close reading of the objects of study. I will elaborate on what kind of words are used to describe the spaces of concern, which characteristics are attached to them, what function they serve in the texts, and how they interact with the other narrative aspects. In chap-‐ ter five, I will move outside to the direct vicinity of the house, and analyse how the authors de-‐ pict the garden and dvor. Again, I will use Bal’s narratological tools, but this time to illustrate which function these outdoor places serve in contrast to the domestic setting, and to touch upon the different experience of “being at home” and “feeling at home”.

In chapter six, I will focus on how the authors have tried to root the literary representa-‐ tion of the domestic setting in the more general Soviet framework. First, I will examine the ex-‐ plicit references to the Soviet context in order to illustrate how the presented tropes reflect cer-‐ tain spatial, historical and social features of the real-‐world space of the Soviet Union. Subse-‐ quently, I will elaborate on how the literary tropes are remediated through the paratexts in chapter seven, and eventually, which symbolic message the authors have tried to convey to the young reader through the image of the Soviet home.

I will end my thesis with a conclusion that presents my findings, and that shortly touches upon future research that could be carried out in relation to the literary representations of the spaces of Soviet childhood.

Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework

35_{With
dvor,
I
refer
to
the
courtyards
that
are
situated
in
between
the
communal
apartments,
somewhat
functioning
as
public
gar-‐} dens (for more information on the dvor, see chapter 3.2 The Soviet Garden and Dvor).

36_{With
kommunalka,
I
refer
to
the
communal
apartments
in
urban
areas
of
the
Soviet
Union,
in
which
several
families
shared
a
floor} or a building. Usually, each family had its own room that functioned as a living room and bedroom in one, whereas the kitchen, bath-‐ room and toilet were shared with the other families (for more information on the kommunalka, see subchapter 3.1 Soviet Housing).

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2.1 The Spatial Turn

Within the field of literary and cultural studies, a so-‐called spatial turn occurred during the late 1960s. One could witness an increasing amount of spatial and geographical vocabulary in aca-‐ demic research on literary settings and narrative trajectories.37_{The
turn
is
characterised
by
two}

main developments that are closely intertwined. Firstly, whereas earlier research has been largely dominated by a focus on the key concepts of time, history and teleological developments, regarding temporality as the most important dimension, in more recent studies, there is a grow-‐ ing interest in the influence of issues of place and space on everyday life and vice versa.38_{Or
as}

Michel Foucault has put it: “We are at a moment, I believe, when our experience of the world is less that of a long life developing through time than that of a network that connects points and intersects with its own skein.”39

Secondly, this turn entails an increasingly interdisciplinary focus that no longer per-‐ ceives place solely in terms of its narrowly defined geographical dimensions, but rather as in-‐ herently connected to time, individual subjects and society as a whole.40_{New
research
areas}

such as literary cartography, literary geography and geocriticism enabled productive frames, theories and methods, and started to address and emphasise the interplay between subjects – both real and fictional – and the places in which they lived. Human geographers like Tim Cre-‐ swell started to examine the notion of space as a social category, arguing that every place has a specific social sense that relates to “a position of a group hierarchy or culture”.41_{This
growing}

acknowledgement that physical places are also social and cultural has changed the study of place from one that was seen to be “highly abstract and remote from experience”42_{towards
an
ap-‐}

proach that considers place as “thoroughly meshed” into the human condition.43

According to Tally Jr., there are several factors that have contributed to this spatial turn in popular and academic texts. Firstly, the devastating impact of the Second World War led to a change in the idea that history should be seen as a linear and progressive movement towards greater enlightenment.44_{In
this
respect,
the
dominant
concept
of
temporality
has
lost
much
of}

37_T_ALLY_J_R_{.,
Spatiality,
p.
12.} 38_{Idem,
p.
3.}

39_F_OUCAULT_,_{M.
(1986).
Of
Other
Spaces:
Utopias
and
Heterotopias
[published
translation
by
Jay
Miskowiec].
Diacritics,
16(1),
pp.
22-‐} 27.

40_A_NDERSON_,_J.,_A_DEY_,_P.,_B_EVAN_,_{P.
(2010).
Positioning
Place:
Polylogic
Approaches
to
Research
Methodology.
Qualitative
Research,} 10(5), pp. 589-‐604.

41_{Idem,
p.
590.}

42_T_UAN_,_{Y.
(1975).
Place:
An
Experiential
Perspective.
The
Geographical
Review,
65(2),
pp.
151-‐165.
Quoted
in
Anderson
et
al.,
Posi-‐}

tioning Place, p. 591.

43_C_ASEY_,_{E.
(2001).
Between
Geography
and
Philosophy:
What
Does
it
Mean
to
Be
in
the
Place-‐World?
Annals
of
the
Association
of}

American Geographers, 91(4), pp. 683-‐693. Quoted in Anderson et al., Positioning Place, p. 591.

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its legitimacy, and created a space for a new validation of spatiality. The massive movements of people that the war caused in terms of refugees, army personnel and exiles underscored the critical importance of the significant differences between places.45_{Secondly,
the
transformation-‐}

al effects of decolonisation and neocolonisation, redrawing and/or erasing the traditional geo-‐ graphical and cultural demarcations between communities triggered the reassertion of space as a concern.46_{Lastly,
the
effects
of
globalisation
and
the
accompanying
technological
develop-‐}

ments augmented one’s sense of space, but simultaneously created a sense of spatial confusion. The economical and technological transcendence of distance led to an increased awareness of one’s local or national identity as well as the perceived spatial divisions between places.47_These

developments suggest that the question of literary spatiality is particularly relevant in today’s global age where literary texts are inevitably influenced by various heritages, languages and ethnicities, accompanied by crossovers in which cultural and national borders are continuously invoked and revoked.48

As a result, scholars started to explore the relation between the social, cultural and geo-‐ graphical dimensions of literary representations of a place in order to examine what kind of im-‐ aginary map is presented to the intended reader. Many of these studies focus on place typolo-‐ gies, analysing what kind of function a certain place fulfils within a fictional framework in a spe-‐ cific period of literary history.49_{Especially
the
house
and
garden
as
a
setting
seem
to
dominate}

the scope of research. In Happy Rural Seat: The English Country House and the Literary Imagina-‐

tion, for instance, Richard Gill illustrates that many English novelists towards the end of the

nineteenth century refer to country houses in terms of their wealth and beauty in juxtaposition to the vulgarity of the lives of the English aristocrats that inhabit them.50_{Another
example
is}

Erin Collopy’s The Communal Apartment in the Works of Irina Grekova and Nina Sadur, in which she explores how literary representations of the domestic sphere reflect the complicated rela-‐ tionship between functioning as a centre of Russian women’s power and as a space charged with cultural and social demands.51

45_{Idem,
p.
13.}

46_{Idem,
pp.
3
and
13-‐14.} 47_{Idem,
p.
14.}

48_C_ECIRE_,_M._S.,_F_IELD_,_H.,_F_INN_,_K._M.,_R_OY_,_M.,_EDS_{.
(2015).
Space
and
Place
in
Children’s
Literature:
1789
to
the
Present.
Farnham:
Ash-‐} gate, pp. 5-‐6.

49_L_UTWACK_,_{L.
(1984).
The
Role
of
Place
in
Literature.
New
York:
Syracuse
University
Press,
p.
12.}

50_H_IBBARD_,_G._{R.
(1974).
Review:
Happy
Rural
Seat:
The
English
Country
House
and
the
Literary
Imagination
by
Richard
Gill.
The}

Modern Language Review, 69(2), pp. 390-‐391.

51_C_OLLOPY_,_{E.
(2005).
The
Communal
Apartment
in
the
Works
of
Irina
Grekova
and
Nina
Sadur.
Journal
of
International
Women’s}

“What Home Was Like in the Soviet Union”: The Literary Thirdspace of the Soviet Home in the Contemporary Children’s Novels Breaking Stalin’s Nose, Arcady’s Goal, and Vremja Vsegda Xorošee