{"product_id":"9781442648425","title":"Automatic for the Masses: The Death of the Author and the Birth of Socialist Realism","description":"\u003cp\u003eAt the end of the 1920s, the Modernist and avant-garde artistic programmes of the early Soviet Union were swept away by the rise of Stalinism and the dictates of Socialist Realism. Did this aesthetic transition also constitute a conceptual break, or were there unseen continuities between these two movements? In \u003ci\u003eAutomatic for the Masses\u003c\/i\u003e, Petre M. Petrov offers a novel, theoretically informed account of that transition, tracing those connections through Modernist notions of agency and authorship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReading the statements and manifestos of the Formalists, Constructivists, and other Soviet avant-garde artists, Petrov argues that Socialist Realism perpetuated in a new form the Modernist “death of the author.” In interpreting this symbolic demise, he shows how the official culture of the 1930s can be seen as a perverted realization of modernism’s unrealizable project. An insightful and challenging interpretation of the era, \u003ci\u003eAutomatic for the Masses\u003c\/i\u003e will be required reading for those interested in understanding early Soviet culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Toronto Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47026587074800,"sku":"9781442648425","price":75.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781442648425_p0.jpg?v=1763811357","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781442648425","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}