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13 - The Road

from Part III - To the Pacific Ocean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2024

Lisa A. Kirschenbaum
Affiliation:
West Chester University, Pennsylvania
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Summary

Chapter 13 investigates the road as a literary device, a metaphor (the “road to communism”), and a material reality. It argues that Ilf and Petrov’s travelogue can be read as a picaresque; the time–space of the road structured the chance meetings, incidents, and accidents that occasioned the collective narrator’s satirical survey of the world. Although Odnoetazhnaia Amerika deviated from the traditional picaresque, turning its gaze on the Other, rather than the rogue’s own society, it nonetheless offered an implicit critique of the Soviet “road to communism.” This was nowhere clearer than in the writers’ description of American highways; for readers familiar with Soviet roads, the contrast with the Soviet Union’s obviously inferior network of roads and roadside amenities would have been obvious.

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Chapter
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Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists
Ilf and Petrov's American Road Trip
, pp. 137 - 146
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • The Road
  • Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, West Chester University, Pennsylvania
  • Book: Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists
  • Online publication: 18 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009008914.017
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  • The Road
  • Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, West Chester University, Pennsylvania
  • Book: Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists
  • Online publication: 18 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009008914.017
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Road
  • Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, West Chester University, Pennsylvania
  • Book: Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists
  • Online publication: 18 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009008914.017
Available formats
×