Comintern Aesthetics

"This is the best collection of essays this reviewer has read in recent years. It has been doomed to success by its very conception—an account of the body of cultural production, and especially literature, inspired and in some cases enabled, by the international communist movement."

Rossen Djagalov, The Russian Review, Vol. 80, No. 3

"I would highly recommend this volume not only to specialists in aesthetics and poetics but also to a wider audience interested in deepening its knowledge about international communism in the twentieth century. In broader Comintern literature, I would argue that this volume is positioned well within the connections between the Soviet central machine and the geographically widespread writers, artists, communists, and activists who plugged into Comintern aesthetics."

Vsevolod Kritskiy, University of Amsterdam, H-Russia

"Comintern Aesthetics is a brilliant collection that will immediately become a definitive work on the subject. The book is the first ever global study of Comintern aesthetics and is full of critical surprises, insights, and innovations. The geographic scope of the book, from Southeast Asia to Central Europe, is truly dazzling."

Bill Mullen, Department of English, Purdue University

"Important and timely, Comintern Aesthetics draws attention to global aesthetic connections and sensibilities inspired and fostered by the Communist utopia, with its ideas of liberation, decolonization, and self-government. This volume will generate a long overdue discussion of the historical legacy of Communism that is not overdetermined by the idioms and assumptions of the Cold War."

Serguei Alex Oushakine, Department of Anthropology and Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University