Common Places: Mythologies of Everyday Life in Russia
Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1994. Hardcover. Three-quarters lilac paper boards with black cloth spine, 356 pp., BW illus. G+ (No dj; bookplates & label & few marks from previous art-library owner.). Item #139832
ISBN: 0674146255
"Provides a view of Russia that is historically informed, replete with unexpected detail, and everywhere stamped with authority. Alternating analysis with personal accounts of Russian life, Boym conveys the foreignness of Russia and examines its peculiar conceptions of private life and common good, of Culture and Trash, of sincerity and banality. Armed with a Dictionary of Untranslatable Terms, we step around Uncle Fedia asleep in the hall, surrounded by a puddle of urine, and enter the Communal Apartment, the central exhibit of the book. It is the ruin of the communal utopia and a unique institution of Soviet daily life; a model Soviet home and a breeding ground for grassroots informants. Here, privacy is forbidden; here the inhabitants defiantly treasure their bits of "domestic trash," targets of ideological campaigns for the transformation (perestroika) of everyday life." (publisher).
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