Literature Without Boundaries: Structure and Dynamics of Soviet Literary Field (1930s-1950s)

The field of art with its absence of definitive rules of entering, flexible and unstable structure was one of the most considerable canals of modernization in western democracies. It provided Pierre Bourdieu with rich material for his theory of fields with major concepts of autonomy and symbolic capital. We propose to reflect on how these crucial for sociology concepts can be applied to the field of soviet art and how methodological work might be enriched by studying the situation of the complete engagement of artists in totalitarian project? Based on empirical inquiries about the writers in Soviet Union between 1930th and 1950th, the reflection will be focused on the problem of the shifting boundaries between autonomous and heteronomous poles in the soviet literature. The heteronomous pole is the one where the specific autonomous values of art are less powerful than “non- artistic” forms of capital such as recognition by the state and the party, institutional and economic benefits. According to our hypothesis the main principle of structuration of the soviet literary field consists in elimination of distinctions inside the field and blending of both vertical and horizontal boundaries: between professionals (artistic elite) and dilettantes (folk creativity, primitive art); between classics (academics) and modernists (popular literature writers). As a result, the distinction between autonomy and heteronomy is no longer relevant but we rather can see a double nature of the field’s structure: on the one hand, highly romantic and disinterested discourse, independence from the market (guaranteed by the state financial and institutional support), developed artistic critics, well-educated public refer to the autonomous perception. On the other hand, the field itself appears to be fully included in the heteronomy, on the level of structure, functioning, and the content (ideological, pedagogical and didactical use of literature, integration of artists into soviet bureaucratic hierarchy).