Companion to Victor Pelevin

Companion to Victor Pelevin, a collaborative undertaking by a group of emerging Russianist scholars, focuses on the work of one of the most important and hotly debated post-Soviet writers. The contributors offer new readings of Pelevin texts that cover a broad time span and pay due attention to the philosophical and aesthetic complexities of Pelevin’s oeuvre in its development from the early post-Soviet years to the second decade of the present millennium.

Sofya Khagi is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She focuses on contemporary Russian literature, modern Russian poetry, the intersections of literature and philosophy, and Baltic cultures. She is the author of Silence and the Rest: Verbal Skepticism in Russian Poetry (Northwestern UP, 2013) and Pelevin and Unfreedom: Poetics, Politics, Metaphysics (Northwestern UP, 2021).

Sofya Khagi is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She focuses on contemporary Russian literature, modern Russian poetry, the intersections of literature and philosophy, and Baltic cultures. She is the author of Silence and the Rest: Verbal Skepticism in Russian Poetry (Northwestern UP, 2013) and Pelevin and Unfreedom: Poetics, Politics, Metaphysics (Northwestern UP, 2021).

“The present collection of articles serves as a balanced introduction to Pelevin’s literary career. It offers many thoughtful and insightful interpretations of Pelevin’s works.”

— Alexandra Smith, University of Edinburgh, Australian Slavonic and East European Studies

“Khagi’s project is intertextual, elucidating both Pelevin’s highly self-referential writing and its relation to Russian literature as a whole. Her holistic approach to Pelevin’s fiction is demonstrated by the extensive footnotes outlining literary theories and politics, and linking to multiple Russian authors, elevating the Companion from a sourcebook on ‘Peleviniana’ to a masterclass in post-Soviet literature. … This concern with intertextuality is embedded within each of the eight essays here, allowing Khagi’s Companion to offer Anglophone readers an invaluable map of the contemporary literary world that Pelevin both creates and critiques.”

— Sarah Gear, University of Exeter, Modern Language Review (April 2023: Vol. 118, No. 2)

“This companion to Pelevin’s work has two major benefits. It offers some usefully workmanlike analyses of his early texts, with handy plot synopses, some general contextualization and thematically engaging discussions. The Companion also offers some introduction to common critical approaches to the writer. The writing is accessible and succinct (if often rather descriptive), and the illustrations a pleasant touch. … [O]verall this is an excellent, balanced and carefully neutral… study that collects everything the Pelevin initiate needs to begin appreciating his work.”

— Sally Dalton-Brown, University of Melbourne, Slavonic and East European Review 100, no. 3 (July 2022)

“The new collection is thoughtfully crafted for a specific audience, namely US and European nonspecialists looking to teach Pelevin at the university level. The chapters… treat all the author’s major works, particularly those translated into English, but they also draw in less-known compositions and avoid going into the weeds on topics more relevant to Russianists. … In sum, the Companion’s scope is simultaneously expansive and tightly focused, and it models effective ways to approach Pelevin in the classroom. … Highly recommended.”

— B. J, Nieubuurt, University of Michigan, CHOICE (December 2022: Vol. 60, No. 4)

“The Companion to Victor Pelevin is a collaborative undertaking by current and recent graduate students from American universities and serves scholarly and pedagogical objectives… Some contributions, like Sofya Khagi’s and Alexander McConell’s, are innovative and explore new avenues in research about Pelevin…”

— Clemens Günther, Freie Universität Berlin, Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie 78.2

“This compendium is an indispensable guide to the perplexing world of one of Russia’s most prominent contemporary writers. It charts the evolution of Pelevin as an author, explores recurring themes across his career, and elucidates the intense scholarly debate his writings have spurred, both in Russia and abroad. The book admirably refrains from offering ‘conclusive’ readings and exhaustive overviews. Concentrating on the author’s pivotal novels and stories (while referencing many others), it acknowledges – and lucidly discusses – the diverse interpretations they have provoked. Yet the compendium’s contributions also offer new, perceptive analyses of Pelevin’s persistent and evolving concerns. This book thus caters both to an ‘uninitiated’ audience, and to readers, scholars, and teachers who have already engaged with Peleviniana in depth.”

–Boris Noordenbos, Associate Professor in Literary & Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam

“The Companion to Viktor Pelevin provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to the major themes and preoccupations of this most popular and enigmatic of all contemporary Russian writers. Compiled and introduced expertly by Sofya Khagi, the author of the first English-language monograph on Pelevin, the volume offers a useful overview of scholarship on the writer and showcases innovative interpretive methods in combination with insightful close analyses of his most important works. The contributions contextualize Pelevin’s writing in Russian history, politics, the literary canon, contemporary philosophical thought, and late-Soviet and post-Soviet ideologies; and Khagi’s introduction engagingly probes his various controversies. Indispensable for all those who teach and study his work.”