Antisemitism and the Decline of Russian Village Prose: Astafiev, Belov, Rasputin in Bloomington, MN

This volume offers a detailed analysis of the literary careers of the three leading representatives of Russian village prose, Viktor Astafiev, Vasily Belov, and Valentin Rasputin. It demonstrates how the “village” writers actively disseminated both the popular and the state-sponsored forms of Soviet antisemitism. Shrayer argues that the leading “village” writers caused the decline of Russian village prose by having inscribed the anti-Semitic narrative into their literary works and public discursive statements.