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The fiction of the Changes : context and reception -- Deaths of authors : Venedikt Erofeev, Bohumil Hrabal, Pavel Vilikovský -- Giving a shape to one's fate : Evgenii Popov, Petr Placák, Peter Pitanek -- The subversion of realism : Aleksandr Ivanchenko, Tat'iana Tolstaia, Duan Mitana -- Writing as being : Jirí Kratochvil, Zuzana Brabcová, Daniela Hodrová, Michal Ajvaz, Jáchym Topol -- Empty words : Vladimir Sorokin, Ján Litvák, Ivan Kolenic -- Learning to live with emptiness : Viktor Pelevin, Václav Kahuda, Vlado Balla -- Conclusion : to speak or not to speak. This book considers Russian, Czech and Slovak fiction in the late communist and early post-communist periods. It focuses on the most innovative trend to emerge in this period, on those writers who, during and after the collapse of communism, characterised themselves as 'liberators' of literature. It shows how these writers in their fiction and critical work reacted against the politicisation of literature by Marxist-Leninist and dissident ideologues, rejecting the conventional perception of literature as moral teacher, and redefining the nature and purpose of writing. The book demonstrates how
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