Notes

The Phenomenology of Stalinist Power in the World of Art

The dominant interpretation of Stalinist aesthetics sees socialist realism as an ideological fiction that overwrote an unpleasant and disturbing reality. This, however, does not appreciate the role that socialist realism had in a uniquely non-Cartesian “economy of truth.” (Petrov 2011, 873-874). A phenomenological technique, such as that employed by Petre Petrov's "The Industry of Truing" provides a novel approach for interpreting the role of socialist realism in Soviet society. Socialist realism was justified on utilitarian grounds, concerned with upholding certain partisan and proletarian ideas (Zhdanov 1950). How do we navigate this complicated intertwining between the creation of reality through art and the promotion of state and partisan goals?

To what extent did the debates about the social utility of competing artistic styles and the nature of Marx’s aesthetics theory among Soviet cultural policy-makers and significant art institutions and organizations influence the shift from a diverse artistic field to the imposition of socialist realism as the official art of the Soviet Union?

Cartesian dualism holds that external reality can be understood, albeit imperfectly, through empirical observation and reasoning through human consciousness. Phenomenology holds that consciousness and external reality should not be separated in the way that dualism does.

A key assumption made for this project is that phenomenological techniques are useful for explaining the relationship between consciousness and reality. This assumption will be defended.

Advances the disciplines by employing a new methodology for the analysis of key primary sources. It is also a case study on how media affects and impacts how we understand external reality.

I propose to do an investigation into available primary sources concerned with the creation of a socialist and Marxist aesthetic philosophy from prominent Soviet artists and policy-makers during the Stalinist period using phenomenological techniques contextualized with an analysis of power relations.

The two sources I used for this presentation were Petre Petrov's aforementioned article on the Slavic Review about socialist realism's unique role in generating truths, connecting that to the Stalinist regime's state-building goals. The second source is Andrey Zhdanov's On Literature, Music, and Philosophy, which is his main work grounding his aesthetic philosophy. He delves into the role of art in promoting and upholding a society's values, where art is valued by its social utility.