Riccardo Nicolosi – författare

This collection of essays explores the continuities and disruptions in the perceptions of criminality, its causes and ways of fighting it in late imperial Russia and the early Soviet Union. It focuses on both the discourse on criminality and thus the conceptualisation of criminality in various disciplines (criminology, psychiatry, and literature), and penal practice, that is, different aspects of criminal law and anti-crime policy. Thus, the volume is markedly interdisciplinary, with authors representing a variety of approaches in history and literary studies, from social history to discourse analysis, from the history of sciences to text analysis.

In the early 1920s, Soviet writers and literary theorists were convinced that adventure fiction held the key to developing a new kind of narrative. The call for a "Russian Stevenson" (Lev Lunts) profoundly impacted the theory of prose and different notions of the literary hero. It also led theorists like Shklovsky to write dime novels and convinced writers of various backgrounds to explore Soviet topography in a new light, harnessing the synergies between imperialism and adventure. Despite the inherently anarchist nature of adventure and its bourgeois offspring, the magic of adventure found its way into socialist realism under different guises, demanding recognition and resisting neglect, especially in the case of socialist realist film.

This book offers a critical historical reconstruction of the early Soviet adventure craze and its lasting popularity in socialist realism. It also offers innovative theoretical propositions for a philological analysis of adventure fiction that arise from this unique historical context.

In the early 1920s, Soviet writers and literary theorists were convinced that adventure fiction held the key to developing a new kind of narrative. The call for a "Russian Stevenson" (Lev Lunts) profoundly impacted the theory of prose and different notions of the literary hero. It also led theorists like Shklovsky to write dime novels and convinced writers of various backgrounds to explore Soviet topography in a new light, harnessing the synergies between imperialism and adventure. Despite the inherently anarchist nature of adventure and its bourgeois offspring, the magic of adventure found its way into socialist realism under different guises, demanding recognition and resisting neglect, especially in the case of socialist realist film.

This book offers a critical historical reconstruction of the early Soviet adventure craze and its lasting popularity in socialist realism. It also offers innovative theoretical propositions for a philological analysis of adventure fiction that arise from this unique historical context.