The Russian thick journal as a discursive space of negotiation
Jean-Paul Sartre’s reception in the Soviet Union during the Thaw Era
This paper sets out to investigate the crucial role played by Russian “thick journals,” also referred to as
literary-artistic and socio-political monthlies, in Jean-Paul Sartre’s Russian reception during the Thaw era. To this end, the
positions (Bourdieu 1983) occupied by the four thick monthlies that published Sartre’s
work and/or about his work in the USSR during the Thaw are mapped. Considering the position of, and relations between, those
journals sheds a different light on Sartre’s reception. It reveals how the thick journals functioned, not only as a medium for
introducing Sartre, but also as a space where his reception was actively negotiated.
Article outline
- Introduction
- The Russian thick journal
- Thick journals and Bourdieusian field theory
- Sartre’s introduction in the USSR
- Sartre in the Soviet periodical field (1947–1966)
- Conclusions
- Notes
-
References
References
Betschart, A.
n.d. “
Sartre und die Sowjetunion. Die Geschichte eines komplizierten Verhältnisses.”
[URL]. Last accessed September 2016.
Birchall, Ian H.
2004 Sartre against Stalinism. New York: Berghahn Books.

Bourdieu, Pierre
1983 “
The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed.”
Poetics 121: 311–356.


Bourdieu, Pierre
1990 The Logic of Practice. Stanford University Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loïc J. D. Wacquant
1992 An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Polity Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre
1996 The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre, Richard Nice, and Tony Bennett
2015 Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. New York: Routledge.

Breininger, Olga
2014 “
A scholarly look at ‘thick’ journals today: The crisis of the institution.”
Russian Journal of Communication 6(1): 20–31.


Bykov, Leonid
2016 The ‘thick journal’ in Russia: Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Journal of Siberian Federal University, Humanities & Social Sciences (5): 1249–1255.


Cohen-Solal, Annie
1985 Sartre. Paris: Gallimard.
Dikushina, N. I.
Kratkai͡a literaturnai͡a ėnt͡siclopedii͡a
, s.v. “Okt
i͡abrʹ” [
October]. Moskva: Sov. Ėnt͡sikl
1968 [URL]. Last accessed 5 September 2017.
Frid, I͡A
1947 “
Ėstetika sovremennogo dekadent͡stva.”
Okti͡abrʹ (8): 146–159.

Friedberg, Maurice
1977 A Decade of Euphoria: Western Literature in Post-Stalin Russia, 1954–64. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Galt͡sova, Elena
1999 “
Nedorazumenii͡a (pervai͡a kanonizat͡sia Sartra v SSSR.” In
Literaturnyĭ Panteon, 291–314. Moscow: Nasledie.

Galtsova, Elena
2001 “
La putain respectueuse et Nekrassov en URSS: Fox-trot avec Jean-PaulSartre.” In
Sartre une écriture en acte, ed. by
Geneviève Idt, 221–251. Paris: Ritm Université de Paris X.

Garaudy, R.
1954 “
O nekotorykh i͡avlenii͡akh v sovremennoĭ frantsuzskoĭ literature.”
Znami͡a
(6): 175–183.

Gouanvic, Jean-Marc
2005 “
A Bourdieusian theory of translation, or the coincidence of practical instances.”
The Translator 11(2): 147–166.


Kazak, V.
1996 Leksikon russkoĭ literatury XX veka [
Lexicon of Russian Literature]. Moscow: RIK “Kul’tura.”

Kozlov, Denis Ju
2013 The Readers of Novyi Mir: Coming to Terms with the Stalinist Past. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.


King, Adele
(ed) 1992 Camus’s L’Etranger: Fifty Years on. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.


Kustanovich, Konstantin
2007 “
Thick journals.” In
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture, ed. by
Tatiana Smorodinskaya,
Karen Evans-Romaine, and
Helena Goscilo, 626–628. New York: Routledge.

Leĭtes, A.
1947 “
Filosofii͡a na chetveren’kakh.”
Novyĭ Mir (2): 199–209.

Levit͡skiĭ, L.
Kratkai͡a literaturnai͡a ėnt͡siclopedii͡a
. “
Novyĭ Mir” [New World],
A. A. Surkov. Moskva: Sov. Ėnt͡sikl
1968 [URL]. Last accessed 5 September 2017.
Loseff, Lev
1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship: Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Literature. Berlin: Peter Lang.


Lygo, Emily
2016 “
Between Ideology and Literature: Translation in the USSR during the Brezhnev Period.”
Perspectives 24(1): 48–58.


Maguire, Robert A.
2000 Red Virgin Soil: Soviet Literature in the 1920’s. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

Martinsen, Deborah A.
1997 Literary Journals in Imperial Russia. New York: Cambridge University Press.

O’Donohoe, Benedict
2005 Sartre’s Theatre: Acts for Life. Peter Lang.

Parker, Stephen, and Matthew Philpotts
2009 “Sinn Und Form”: The Anatomy of a Literary Journal. Walter de Gruyter.


Philippe, Gilles
2005 “
Notice: La putain respectueuse.” In
Théâtre complet / Jean-Paul Sartre, ed. by
Michel Contat,
Jacques Deguy,
et al., 1355–1363. Paris: Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.

Philpotts, Matthew
2010 “
Through Thick and Thin.”
International Journal of the Book 7(4): 55–64.


Philpotts, Matthew
2012 “
The Role of the Periodical Editor: Literary Journals and Editorial Habitus.”
The Modern Language Review 107(1): 39–64.


Pugacheva, Marina and I͡Armolok, Svetlana
2001 “
ėto byl edinstvennyĭ legal’nyĭ opposit͡sionnyĭ zhurnal.” [It was the only legal oppositional journal].
Novai͡a russkai͡a kniga (2).
[URL]. Last accessed 5 September 2017.
Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1954 “
Vpechatlenii͡a ot poezdki v Sovet͡skiĭ Soi͡uz.”
Okti͡abrʹ (10): 130–141.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1955 “
Lizzi.”
Inostrannai͡a Literatura (1): 107–126.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1955a “
Otrazhat’ nosto
i͡a
shchee skvoz’ prizmu budushchego.”
Inostrannai͡a Literatura (5): 246–264.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1955b “
Tol’ko pravda.”
Znami͡a
(8): 114–171.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1959 “
Sartr o probleme molodezhi.”
Inostrannai͡a Literatura (12): 216–218.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1961 “
Naemniki protiv Kuby.”
Inostrannai͡a Literatura (8): 234–241.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1963 “
Кholodnai͡a voĭna i edinstvo kul’tury.”
Inostrannai͡a Literatura (1): 222–229.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1964 “
Slova.”
Novyĭ Mir (10): 60–108.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1964a “
Slova.”
Novyĭ Mir (11): 73–114.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1966 “
D’i͡avol i gospod’ bog.”
Inostrannai͡a Literatura (1): 84–165.

Sartr, Zhan-Pol’
1966a “
Samoe glavnoe dli͡a meni͡a ėto deĭstvie”
Inostrannai͡a Literatura (9): 243–245.

Velikovskiĭ, S.
1966 “
Izvergi, svi͡atye i zemnoe spasenie.”
Inostrannai͡a Literatura (1): 166–170.

Yurchak, Alexei
2013 Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.


Sherry, Samantha
2012 “
Censorship in translation in the Soviet Union in the Stalin and Khrushchev eras.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh.

Sherry, Samantha
2015 Discourses of Regulation and Resistance. Censoring Translation in the Stalin and Khrushchev Era Soviet Union. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Zonina, Lena
1960 “
Al’tonskie uzniki Sartra.”
Inostrannai͡a Literatura (9): 220–226.

Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
ARSLAN, Devrim Ulaş
2019.
Erken Cumhuriyet Dönemi Edebiyat Dergilerinde Çeviri, Eleştiri ve Polemik: Çeviri Tarihine ‘Tercüme Münakaşaları’ Işığında Bakmak.
Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi :27
► pp. 16 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 may 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.