About the Book:”In its sure grasp of a huge subject and in its speculative boldness, Professor Clark’s study represents a major breakthrough. It sends one back to the original texts with a whole host of new questions. . . . And it also helps us to understand the place of the ‘official’ writer in that peculiar mixture of ideology, collective pressure, and inspiration which is the Soviet literary process.” Times Literary Supplement”The Soviet Novel has had an enormous impact on the way Stalinist culture is studied in a range of disciplines (literature scholarship, history, cultural studies, even anthropology and political science).” Slavic Review”Those readers who have come to realize that history is a branch of mythology will find Clark’s book a stimulating and rewarding account of Soviet mythopoesis.” American Historical ReviewA dynamic account of the socialist realist novel’s evolution as seen in the context of Soviet culture. A new Afterword brings the history of Socialist Realism to its end at the close of the 20th century.Table of Contents: Introduction: the Distinctive role of Socialist Realism in Soviet CultureI. Socialist Realism before 19321. What Socialist Realism Isand What Led to Its Adoption as the Official Method of Soviet Literature2. The Positive Hero in Prevolutionary Fiction3. Socialist Realist Classics of the TwentiesII. High Stalinist Culture4. The Machine and the Garden: Literature and the Metaphors for the New Society5. The Stalinist Myth of the “Great Family”6. The Sense of Reality in the Heroic AgeIII. An Analysis of the Conventional Soviet Novel7. The Prototypical Plot8. Three Auxiliary Patterns of Ritual SacrificeIV. Soviet Fiction since World War II9. The Postwar Stalin Period (1944-53)10. The Khrushchev Years11. Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained?ConclusionAppendix A: The Master Plot as Exemplified in the Production Novel and Other Basic Types of Novel of the Stalin PeriodAppendix B: The Official Short List of Model Novels as Inferred from Speeches to Writers’ Union CongressesAfterwordNotesSelect BibliographyIndex