Synthetic Research on Russian Postmodernist Literature of the Nineties

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We studied major products of Russian postmodernism in various genres (prose, poetry, criticism, the ater, art, movie and so on), and characterized them according to the following points : 1) To what extent the postmodernist thought and its specific creational styles are prevalent in contemporary Russia? 2) What is the specificity of Russian postmodernism in comparison with that in other regions of the world? 3) What is the relation between Russia's new culture in the 90s and the legacy of pre-revolutionary culture, as well as the Soviet culture? 4) What kind of role does postmodernism play for the expression of Russias' cultural self-identity?As a result we came to the conclusion that Russian postmodernism is by no means mere import of the European trend, but has its root in Russia's cultural history. This is why postmodernism functions in contemporary Russia not only as a vehicle of anti-soviet, anti-communist movement but also as a unique mediator for all cultural modes of the 19th and 20th centuries.We also organized a symposium "Russian Culture on the Threshold of a New Century" (12-15 July, 2000, Slavic Research Center) for the pursuit of international conversation on this topic. Results of our research are partly published in : T.Mochizuki (ed.), Russian Culture on the Threshold of a New Century, Slavic Research Center, 2001 ; T.Mochizuki, E.Vlasov, B.Lanin, Modern Russian Writers, (http : //src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/Writer/windex-e.html).