The Akunin Project

The Mysteries and Histories of Russia's Bestselling Author

Edited by Elena V. Baraban & Stephen M. Norris
Categories: Literary Criticism, World History, Popular Culture, Communication & Media Studies, World Literature
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Hardcover : 9781487508265, 372 pages, February 2021
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Table of contents

Acknowledgments
Notes on Transliteration

1. The Akunin Project: Introduction
Elena V. Baraban and Stephen M. Norris

2. Interview with Grigorii Chkhartishvili (Boris Akunin)

Part One: Postmodern Detektiv: The Erast Fandorin Series

3. In Search of a Hero: Boris Akunin’s Death of Achilles
Elena V. Baraban

4. Rewriting Homer: Boris Akunin’s Postmodern Approach
Judith Kalb

Part Two: Amateur Detectives: The Sister Pelagia Trilogy and Adventures of Nicholas Fandorin

5. Tempting the Reader into a Search for Meaning: Boris Akunin’s Pelagia Trilogy
Claire Whitehead

6. "A Little Theory": Boris Akunin’s "Crime and Punishment"
Zara M. Torlone

Part Three: Buried Secrets and Historical Spies in Akunin’s Works

7. The Mysteries of Moscow: In Which Boris Akunin Impersonates a French Writer and Reveals a Buried Secret
Elizabeth Richmond-Garza

8. Spying on the Past: Boris Akunin’s History of Espionage
Stephen M. Norris

Part Four: Rewriting the History of Russia

9. L’etat, c’est tout: Boris Akunin’s History of the Russian State and the National History Canon
Ilya Gerasimov

10. An Instructional Manual for the Nation: Boris Akunin’s History of the Russian State
Stephen M. Norris

Part Five: New Pseudonyms and Projects: Anatolii Brusnikin and Akunin-Chkhartishvili

11. "Under the Wide-Branching Cranberry": Stiob and Allusion in Anatoly Brusnikin’s The Ninth Saviour
Yekaterina Severts

12. The Family Album: Ordinary People in Extraordinary Circumstances
Elena V. Baraban

Part Six: Boris Akunin as a Literary and Commercial Project

13. Socialist Realism Inside-Out: Boris Akunin and Mass Literature for the Elite
Bradley A. Gorski

14. Boris Akunin and Cross-Media Marketing
Natalia Erlenkamp

15. Conclusion: A Dozen Questions for Boris Akunin

Appendices: Excerpts from Boris Akunin's Untranslated Works

1. Grigorii Chkhartishvili, "If I Were a Newspaper Magnate: Notes of a Restless Cow" (1999), translated by Bradley A. Gorski

2. "A New Karamzin Has Appeared" and "General Introduction" to The History of the Russian State, translated by Stephen M. Norris

3. Excerpt from Boris Akunin, Spy Novel (2005), translated by Stephen M. Norris

4. Excerpt from Anatolii Brusnikin, The Ninth Savior, translated by Yekaterina Severts

List of Works by Boris Akunin
List of Contributors
Index

Description

The Akunin Project is the first book to study the fiction and popular history of Grigorii Chkhartishvili, one of the most successful writers in post-Soviet Russia. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Chkhartishvili published over sixty books under the pen names Anatolii Brusnikin, Anna Borisova, Akunin-Chkhartishvili, and, most commonly, Boris Akunin. His series featuring the tsarist secret policeman Erast Fandorin has sold over 15 million books in Russia alone, making Akunin one of the bestselling authors of the post-Soviet era. Combining intertextuality, allusions, pastiche, and other markers of postmodern playfulness, many of Akunin’s works have been translated into English and have also been adapted for film and television. Akunin’s public profile has been further enhanced by his active involvement in mass political protests against Vladimir Putin.

Despite Akunin’s international reputation as a celebrated writer, there is very little critical work on his literary output and his mysterious persona. Bringing together scholars of literature, history, and culture, The Akunin Project fills this gap by exploring the author’s bestselling adventure novels and recent histories of the Russian state. The book includes translations of five short works previously unavailable in English as well as an interview with the author.

Reviews

"One fascinating feature of The Akunin Project is its intention to experiment with the traditional form of an academic collected volume as well as epitomize postmodernist aesthetics both thematically and stylistically in this project."

- Olga Breininger-Umetayeva, Higher School of Economics