RUSS 254 -- Reading Questions for "A Thrust into the Future"
(the final chapter of Gladkov's proto-Socialist Realist novel Cement)
and Abram Tertz's article "On Socialist Realism

You should choose to read the Tertz (theory) or Gladkov (practice) first, depending upon what order you prefer to encounter them in.

Gladkov's "A Thrust into the Future": 

1) Are the characters psychologically convincing?

2) Do you think that Gleb fits the definition of a socialist realist hero? What do you suppose such a hero should be like?

3) How does Gladkov try to inspire his reader?

4) Characterize the narrative voice in the chapter. How is it related to Gleb's consciousness?

5) What role does the "future" play in this final chapter?

7) What sort of imagery predominates?

8) Does didacticism smother art in this selection?  

Tertz, "On Socialist Realism":

1) How does Tertz define socialist realism?

2) In what ways does socialist realism resemble and differ from 19th-century literary realism as you know (or imagine) it?  

3) How does Tertz undermine the pretensions of socialist realism through the general tone of his article? In what ways does he do so more directly?

4) What sorts of literature and documents does Tertz quote in the course of his article? How does he use these different sources in his argument?

5) Does his attitude toward socialist realism seem ambivalent or not?

6) Would this article have been more or less effective if Tertz had written it differently -- as a vehement polemic against socialist realism? Would it have more or less effectively undermined socialist realist pretensions?

7) In what ways does Tertz parallel "Communism" to Christianity? Is it an effective parallel?

8) What are some of the aspects of a "positive hero" in socialist realism as Tertz represents it?