Abject realism and the depiction of violence in late imperial Russian crime fiction : the case of N.P. Timofeev
Abstract
This article examines violence in ‘Prestuplenie sueveriia’ (1872) and ‘Na sovesti’ (1879) by Nikolai Timofeev. While many works of early Russian crime fiction sanitize the portrayal of violence, Timofeev takes a different approach in these novellas. His unflinching descriptions of violence employ an aesthetic of 'abject realism', a radical extension of the critical realism more typical of the late Imperial era. A reading of abject realism in Timofeev's writing extends our understanding of the variety within early Russian crime fiction and of the ways in which this particular form of realism functions and the effects that it can create.
Citation
Whitehead , C E 2019 , ' Abject realism and the depiction of violence in late imperial Russian crime fiction : the case of N.P. Timofeev ' , Modern Language Review , vol. 114 , no. 3 , pp. 498-524 . https://doi.org/10.5699/modelangrevi.114.3.0498
Publication
Modern Language Review
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0026-7937Type
Journal article
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