Socialistický realismus jako uzavřený vesmír znaků
Socialist realism as a closed universe of symbols

Summary/Abstract: The reviewed work titled "The country of lyres and steel: Subjects, ideologies, models, myths and rituals in the culture of Czech Stalinism" (Prague: Academia, 2018) is an attempt to grasp official art production during the period of Stalinism (1948–1954) in Czechoslovakia from a new angle, that of literary history. Firstly, the author strives to properly capture and deal with the project of socialist realism and rehabilitate it as a distinctive art phenomenon, explicitly in opposition to simplifying sociological approaches. Secondly, he undertakes a semiotic analysis of specific works, emphasizing ideological meanings which form their poetics and world of fiction. In doing so, he draws inspiration mainly from approaches of Katerina Clark and Russian studies in the West in general. The reviewer analyzes in detail the author’s theoretical frameworks, terminological instruments and ideas that the later has formulated, and points at limitations resulting from the selected angle of view and at the bias in the argumentation against the “traditional” criticism of socialist realism as a product of power pressure. The reviewer admits that the monograph is a pioneer in the Czech context due to its captivation by the topic it deals with and in its commitment to historicize it. Insofar as its reception of the Russian studies in the West are concerned, it brings a number of impulses and shows the way to domestic research. Its core consists in meticulous interpretations of specific authors and works, which are authentic, sovereign and successful. On the other hand, the author’s suggestive rhetoric and obsession with general concepts prevail over interpretation logic and contribution to knowledge; in general, the attempt to grasp socialist realism from a new angle as an art and cultural phenomenon failed, as the method focusing solely on an analysis of text does not permit capturing its historical aspect.

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