Institutional Gothic in the novels of Vladimir Sharov and Evgenii Vodolazkin

Bibliographic Data

ID9641173
AuthorsMuireann Maguire (0000-0001-7615-6720, Department of Modern Languages, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume61
Issue4
Pages420-438
Publication date2019-10-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanadian Slavonic Papers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-5006 • E-ISSN: 2375-2475
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00085006.2019.1648986
OpenAlexW2966523755
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited16

Vladimir Sharov (1952–2018) and Evgenii Vodolazkin (1964–) are among the most significant and influential writers of contemporary postmodern Russian fiction. This article argues that the subgenre of institutional Gothic – defined here as Gothic plots set in mental asylums, hospital wards, and other places of involuntary confinement – is an important structural and metafictional element in their novels. It also suggests that these authors’ use of the Gothic mode corresponds to the traditional function of Gothic narrative as a reaction to historical trauma. Each of the novels discussed here (Sharov’s Sled v sled [In Their Footsteps, 1988], and Vodolazkin’s Aviator [The Aviator, 2016]) re-sites traditional European Gothic plots in analogous Soviet and post-Soviet institutional settings, including the clinic, the prison camp, and the mental asylum. For context, the article also discusses Gothic aspects of Sharov’s later novels Repetitsii (The Rehearsals, 1992) and Do i vo vremia (Before and During, 1993)

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Context (archaeology · Element (criminal law · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Postmodernism · Prison · Classics · Crime and Detective Fiction Studies · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law

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