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The New Literary Observer was launched in 1992 as the first post-Soviet journal devoted to literature. Since its inception, the journal has become the leading Russian interdisciplinary publication dedicated to Russian culture in a global context.
The task of NLO is to study and elucidate contemporary culture, as well as to promote Russian cultural theory in the international intellectual community.
The journal includes material of the following nature:
The task of NLO is to study and elucidate contemporary culture, as well as to promote Russian cultural theory in the international intellectual community.
The journal includes material of the following nature:
- articles on the problems, or the history, of the liberal arts and sciences;
- articles devoted to various aspects of the cultural history of Russia and Western Europe;
- unique archive documents (literary texts, letters, memoirs);
- articles, reviews, interviews and essays on issues of contemporary literature;
- thorough bibliographies of works of fiction and the liberal arts and sciences;
- chronicles of scientific and creative life.
contents:
NEW POETRY
THE HISTORICAL IMAGINARY AND THE LIMITS OF HISTORICITY
- Anatoly Korchinksy. From the Guest Editor
- Igor Kobylin. The Annoying Companion of the Cosmic Sovereign: Historical Imagination and Fantastic Materialism
- Dmitry Kostoglotov. War cinema and the regime of historicity: «Saving Private Ryan» and «Jojo Rabbit»
- Dmitriy Zernov, Fedor Nikolai. Historical Imagination, Media Nostalgia and Alternative History in Video Games: Fallout-4 vs. Atomic Heart
THE SOCIAL IMAGINARY IN RUSSIAN PROSE
- From the Editor
- Guido Carpi. Between Hegel and Fourier: The Enigma of «The Landlady»
- Alexey Vdovin. «Village Detective Story»: The Origin of Crime Fiction About Peasants in the Russian Empire of the 1850s
- Vikentiy Chekushin. In the shadow of the «Short Course»: How A.N. Tolstoy’s novel «Bread» did not become the model of socialist realism
SOCIALIST REALISM AFTER SOCIALIST REALISM
Part I. General observations
Part II. Individual cases
- Anna Razuvalova. Building the Distance: the Reception of Socialist Realist Aesthetics in the Journalism of Village Prose Writers in the 1970s-1980s (Sergei Zalygin and Viktor Astafyev)
- Daria Zhurkova. The Socialist Realist Canon in Popular Music: Late Soviet Songs about the Motherland in the Television Festival «Song of the Year» (1971–1986)
- Liana Battsaligova. Metamorphoses of the Post-Soviet Aesthetic: Georgy Gurianov and the Seduction of Socialist Realism
POETOLOGICAL STUDIES
- Anton Azarenkov, Danil Shved. Music on the edge: Tactile Instruments as a Poetic Testament by Genrikh Sapgir
- Tatiana Krasilnikova. «The Time is Night», Hilarious: Laughter as Resistance in Ludmila Petrushevskaya’s Novel
- Dina Shulyatyeva. Nodal Point, Turning Point, and Future Narratives: between Interactive and Non-interactive Forms
FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF L.M. BATKIN
CHRONICLE OF CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
- Olga Balla. That’s where we’ll fly (a review of O. Yuriev Vineta: novel. Мoscow, 2024)
- Aleksandr Zhitenev. The Strolls and Conversations of Aleksandr Ilyannen (a review of A. Ilyanen The Nanny’s Little House. Petrograd, 2025)
- Aleksandr Ulanov. The Survival of Feelings (a review of A. Frolov Intuitive Pages. Мoscow, 2024)
- Aleksei Porvin. Indicate the Girl (a review of V. Baronetz Farewell Words. Almaty, 2024)
BIBLIOGRAPHY. CHINESE STUDIES OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE
- Li Qin. Russian literature and criticism at the turn of the century: a view from China (A review of Current trends and tendencies in Russian literature and criticism. Beijing, 2023)
- Sun Xiaoli. The results of the development of Russian «new realism»: a view from China (A review of Xue Ranran Studies in Contemporary Russian New Realist Prose. Hanzhou, 2021)
- Cai Jiafen, Ye Lei, Tao Yuan. From «holy foolishness» to Russian classical literature (A review of Wang Zhigeng. The Aesthetic Dimen- sion of the «Holy Foolishness»: Cultural Interpretations of Russian Classical Literature. Beijing, 2013)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Fedor Nikolai. Studies of nostalgia: memory politics, history of emo- tions, and the discussions of temporality (A review of Becker T. Yes- terday: A New History of Nostalgia. Cambridge (MA); London, 2023; The Routledge Handbook of Nostalgia. Abingdon; New York, 2025)
- Yevgeny Savitsky. The Text as a Mirror, Trace, and Anamorphosis: Iconic Narratives of Pre- and Post-Modernity (A review of Eick A.-L. «Geschichte zerfällt in Bilder, nicht in Geschichten»: Visualität in der literarischen Geschichtsdarstellung. Paderborn, 2024; Hoffmann U. Dimensionen von «bilde» – Ansätze zu einem ikonischen Erzählen im späthöfischen Roman. Berlin; Boston, 2023)
- Sergei Tashkenov. From entertaining coprology to scatological excess: the limits of the «unculture» in cultural sciences (A review of R. Lyuin Shit: forays into scientific, cultural, и socio-historical copro- logy, 2024; D. Laport. A History of Shit, 2024)
- Sergei Fokin. Charles Baudelaire, Yakov Shiffrin, «Pleiades», or how the author of The Flowers of Evil became canonical (A review of Baudelaire Ch. Œuvres complètes. Paris, 2024)
HACKWORK
- Vera Milchina. «Sparks grow dim out in midair...» On the Commen- taries to the Parisian Impressions of Nikolai Nadezhdin (A review of N.I. Nadzhedin The Sparks of Divine Light. From European Impres- sions / compiled by M.G. Talalay, M.A. Biryukova; edited text by М.А. Biryukova. St. Petersburg, 2025)
- New Books
CHRONICLE OF SCHOLARLY LIFE
- Kulshat Medeuova. International seminar «Reconsidering Modernity & Socialism» (Princeton University, October 11–12, 2024)
- Aleksandr Fokin. The Moment of Transition: The Soviet System in Search of a New Equilibrium. International conference «1954: The First Year of a New Era» (МВШСЭН, МИФИ, September 16–17, 2024)
- Anna Isayeva, Darya Strizhkova. International conference «Theories and Practices of Literary Craft»: “Dialogue with the Reader”» (HSE University (Moscow), September 13–14, 2024)