Russian magical realism and pelevin as its exponent

Abstract

In her article Russian Magical Realism and Pelevin as Its Exponent Alexandra Berlina seeks to enrich magical realism studies as a field of comparative literature and culture by howing that, although largely ignored in scholarship, such a thing as Russian magical realism exists and provides an interesting field for analysis. First, Berlina provides an overview of relevant scholarly works on the genre, tracing mentions (as well as striking omissions) of Russian influence, followed by a discussion of the few publications which deal with Russian magical realism, concentrating on Erika Haber's The Myth of the Non-Russian. Berlina then discusses Viktor Pelevin (1962-), the author of dozens of magical realist texts, most of which have been published in English and she discusses alsoaspects of the translations of Pelevin's work by Andrew Bromfield. Pelevin's popularity has ttracted much critical attention in Russia and some outside, but his fiction has never been discussed in terms of magical realism and Western specialists of the genre have not as of yet analyzed his work in the context of magical realism.