«This is an interesting and important book, the first attempt to encapsulate the highly idiosyncratic uvre and career of Evgeny Popov, a major and controversial figure in the late Soviet and post-Soviet literary landscape.» (Michael Pushkin, University of Birmingham) «Morris is excellent in his treatment of the writers attitude towards the past and history; and he differentiates between Popovs more nuanced and ambiguous view of the Soviet experiment and those writers, likewise liberals, who have adopted a confessional stance.» (Robert Porter, University of Bristol) «A broad contextualization of the works of this important Russian author.» (Christine Engel, University of Innsbruck) This is the first book devoted to the writings of Evgeny Popov (born 1946), a major and controversial figure in the late Soviet and post-Soviet literary landscape. The author uses a wide range of primary and secondary sources, many of them in Russian, alongside detailed analysis of the novels and stories themselves. The introduction charts the course of Popovs personal and professional biography, including major turning points such as the Metropole affair of 1979. A chapter on critical contexts provides a clear account of the history of Popovs reception. Other chapters focus on the first collection of short stories and the complexities of narrative voice, the concept of the non-elucidatory principle at the heart of Popovs poetics, and the short story cycles in Metropole and Catalogue, from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Finally the author addresses the key phenomenon of Popovs self-fictionalization in both his shorter and longer works up to the present day.

Contents: Personal and professional biography – Critical contexts and Reception – Writing ‘Pornography of the Spirit’: An Introduction to Popov’s Short Stories – Narration and Discourse: The Refusal of Significance in the Short Story – ‘Life’s Tragedy I’ll Transform into Reverie-Farce’: Short Story Cycles in and Biography and the Authorial Person as Narrative Objects – Whose Soul is a Patriot? Making ‘Non-Existent’ Persons History in Resurrecting the Soul of a Patriot and Refusing the Novel in and Later Works.