Chapter 33 - Reception in the Soviet Union (1953–1991) and Post-Soviet States (1991–2020)

Summary

The chapter will dwell on the history of translation, teaching and reception of Ralph Ellison’s works in the USSR and post-Soviet countries and on the curious fact of Ralph Ellison’s “invisibility” there: his masterpiece, Invisible Man, still remains untranslated – and yet studied – in Russia and other formerly Soviet states. Soviet/post-Soviet Ellisoniana includes several editions of Ellison’s short stories and chapters, and a dozen critical studies. Trying to explain this paradox, one has to turn to the characteristics of Soviet editing policy and of the post-Soviet “literary field,” including economics of literature, university teaching practices, literary criticism, academic research, and the way these factors shaped Ellison’s image.