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Liebig2020.Pdf (3.184Mb) This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Nostalgia Re-Written. Boris Akunin’s Fandorin Project and the Detective (Re-)Discovery of Empire Anne Liebig Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) The University of Edinburgh 2020 Contents List of Illustrations ..................................................................................................... 3 Note on Transliteration ............................................................................................. 4 Abstract of Thesis ....................................................................................................... 5 Lay Summary of Thesis ............................................................................................. 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7 1. Detective Fiction and the Instability of Reality ............................................. 33 1.1. From Classic to Contemporary .................................................................. 34 1.2. Boris Akunin as Post-Soviet Literature’s Trickster ................................... 54 2. Between the Popular and the Political: The Post-Soviet Nostalgia Debate 63 2.1. The 1990s: Exploring Nostalgia ................................................................ 68 2.2. After 2000: Streamlining Nostalgia ........................................................... 79 3. The Fandorin Project: Against a Canonisation of the Past ......................... 94 3.1. The Death of Achilles (1998) ..................................................................... 98 3.1.1. Re-Writing Empire: (M)Other Moscow............................................... 100 3.1.2. Writing Nation: Strolls With Pushkin, Lermontov & Co. ................... 114 3.1.3. Conclusion ........................................................................................... 127 3.2. The State Counsellor (2000) .................................................................... 130 3.2.1. Re-Writing Empire: Of Might and Men............................................... 133 3.2.2. Writing Nation: The Disenchantment of the Positive Hero ................. 151 3.2.3. Conclusion ........................................................................................... 173 3.3. The Black City (2012) .............................................................................. 180 3.3.1. Re-Writing Empire: Elephant on Edge .................................................. 186 3.3.2. Writing Nation: More of Chekhov, Less of Dostoevsky ....................... 202 3.3.3. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 229 4. Conclusion: The Empire That We (Never) Lost ......................................... 234 5. Bibliography ................................................................................................... 255 List of Illustrations Figure 1 Russian Embassy UK Tweet ....................................................................... 7 Figure 2 The Russia That We Lost Film Still ............................................................ 69 Figure 3 A Tsar is Born .............................................................................................. 87 Figure 4 Original Newspaper Captions .................................................................... 184 3 Note on Transliteration Russian names, with the exception of place and personal names that have a commonly used English form, have been transliterated in accordance with the Library of Congress system. The titles of books and films are given in the original Cyrillic, with translations. All translations from German are by the author. 4 Abstract of Thesis Name of student: Anne Liebig Degree sought: PhD No. of words 98143 in the main text of thesis: Title of thesis: Nostalgia Re-Written. Boris Akunin’s Fandorin Project and the Detective (Re-)Discovery of Empire Since his rise to fame in 1998, Boris Akunin has become a household name on the post-Soviet book market. Temporarily, he also became one of the leading voices in Russia’s liberal opposition movement to the Putin regime. Occupying a place on the border between fiction and non-fiction, Akunin’s oeuvre challenges genre classifications along with established perceptions of cultural authority in Russia. Akunin’s first and most successful project is the best-selling Fandorin series, a series of historical detective novels that are set in the late Imperial era. The choice of historical detective fiction - a genre that is both popular and interactive at the same time – allowed Akunin to involve a broad, middle-brow readership in a critical problematisation of Empire whilst updating crime fiction for a specific post-Soviet usability. In my thesis, I approach the Fandorin project as a double detective journey that consists of two narrative strands: one righting the historical narrative about Empire, the other using this reassessment to counteract the widespread trends of nostalgia and cynicism in contemporary post-Soviet culture. In my reading, these two strands simultaneously embody the novelty of Akunin’s self-proclaimed ‘new detective novel’: a revivification of the socio-political function of traditional crime fiction, aimed at Russia’s post-Soviet nostalgia discourse, and a rediscovery of original intelligentsia values, accompanied by a critical investigation of the intelligentsia’s ill-fated nostalgia for their own, insufficiently reassessed past. Consequently, I present the Fandorin project as a multi-tome counternarrative to the regnant nostalgic remembering for Empire within the wider post-Soviet nostalgia debate. 5 Lay Summary of Thesis Name of student: Anne Liebig Degree sought: PhD No. of words 98143 in the main text of thesis: Title of thesis: Nostalgia Re-Written. Boris Akunin’s Fandorin Project and the Detective (Re-)Discovery of Empire This thesis discusses the work of Boris Akunin, one of the most popular writers of detective fiction in contemporary Russia. Akunin, who became a writer in the late 1990s following the post-Soviet liberation of the Russian book market, designed what he called a ‘new detective novel’ that mixes entertainment with intellectual brainteasers. The result of this experiment was the Fandorin project, a 15-volume series of historical detective novels set in the Russian Empire during the late 19th and early 20th century. In this thesis, I analyse how Akunin used the specific genre of historical detective fiction to engage readers in the playful re-discovery of Imperial history and culture. I argue that Akunin’s overall aim was to counter the widespread nostalgic trends in official Russian memory politics and culture, many of which contribute to a one- sided and simplified remembering of Empire in contemporary Russia. This is an important task for two reasons: first, the current Russian nostalgia boom contributes to the return of authoritarian forms of governance under the Putin regime. Akunin provides readers with reasons not to copy the past, but to learn from its mistakes. Second, by highlighting the need for a constructive reflection on the problematic heritage of Empire, Akunin simultaneously tackles a problem that is highly relevant for other cultural backgrounds – showcasing literature’s unique potential for defusing the increasingly explosive border between fact and fiction on a global stage. 6 Introduction Без тайны невозможно жить. Извините за трюизм, но вся наша жизнь – сплошной детектив с убийством, точные обстоятельства которого нам до самого финала неизвестны.1 No border today is as contested as that between fact and fiction. On 18th March 2018, the official UK Russian Embassy Twitter account mocked British accusations over the Salisbury novichok attacks in a tweet that called for the help of Agatha Christie’s Hercules Poirot: Figure 1 Russian Embassy UK Tweet (Russian Embassy UK, Twitter post, March 18, 2018, 2:54 a.m. [accessed 20 February 2020]) By implying that the Skripal affair was nothing but a fabricated mystery tale, the Embassy spokesteam chose to view politics as a spectacle, best scrutinised through the prism of popular fiction. In the age of fake news and international disinformation campaigns, the line between the narrative construction of truth, reality, and fantasy poses a substantial challenge for people across the entire globe. The figure of a beloved literary detective, used to evoke a sense of security in the midst of all this confusion, promises to provide the reassurance modern media no longer can. Yet detective fiction is, essentially, a paradox. It is a genre that is both new and old, traditional and innovative, rigid and lithe. Most interesting, perhaps, is
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