Alexei Yurchak's the concept of the political, and the paradoxes of Soviet life during the late Soviet period Cover Image

Alexei’aus Yurchako politiškumo samprata ir vėlyvojo Sovietmečio paradoksai
Alexei Yurchak's the concept of the political, and the paradoxes of Soviet life during the late Soviet period

Author(s): Jūratė Kavaliauskaitė
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Political Theory, Government/Political systems, Political psychology, Politics and society, History and theory of political science, History of Communism, Sociology of Politics
Published by: Vilniaus Universiteto Leidykla
Keywords: Soviet society; Soviet reality; the discursive authority; legitimacy;

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the concept of the political, and it’s relationship to the Late Soviet Socialism, adressed in the Sovietology oeuvre of Proffesor Alexei Yurchak. The question is raised whether the claim about inner paradoxes of the late Soviet system as a single discursive formation can be substantiated without addressing the probability of more fundamental discursive divisions, splits and multiplicities structuring life of the post-Stalinist epoch. The critical analysis of such concepts as „authoritative discourse“ and discursive „performative shift“ reveals contradictions of author‘s conceptual attempt to explain the legitimacy of the late Soviet system, as well as elucidates why the issue of the Soviet as the political remains suspended in the analytical shema of Yurchak.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 236-251
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Lithuanian