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Nariman Skakov offers a new way to understand Soviet modernism, showing how writers and artists looked to the East to renew avant-garde experimentalism under Stalin. He traces how figures such as Victor Shklovsky, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Dziga Vertov, and Sergei Eisenstein responded to the Soviet state’s ideological demands by engaging with the traditions of the new socialist republics in Central Asia. The concept of national form gave these artists a sanctuary for aesthetic innovation, yet this experimentation relied on exoticization of the “strangeness” of the Soviet East and a fascination with ethnic others. Recasting Soviet aesthetics from the vantage point of Central Asia, Skakov rethinks orientalism and its relationship to socialism. Challenging conventional narratives of the fate of the Soviet avant-garde, Reorientalism provides a deeply original decentering of modernism.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780231218016","publication_date":"20251028","publisher":"Columbia University Press","slug":"reorientalism","subtitle":"From Avant-garde to Soviet National Form","title":"Reorientalism"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004240","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Russian Lit Crit","score":0.7636,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"East European Literary Criticism","score":0.7339,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS010010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Eastern European History","score":0.6943,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004240","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Russian Lit Crit","score":0.7636,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"East European Literary Criticism","score":0.7339,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS010010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Eastern European History","score":0.6943,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004240","confidence_band":"high","label":"Russian Lit Crit","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LIT024060","confidence_band":"high","label":"21st Century Literature","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LIT025030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Politics in Literature","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Russian Lit Crit","score":0.7636,"slug":"russian-lit-crit"},{"label":"East European Literary Criticism","score":0.7339,"slug":"east-european-literary-criticism"},{"label":"Eastern European History","score":0.6943,"slug":"eastern-european-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Russian Lit Crit","Good for readers who enjoy Russian Lit Crit and East European Literary Criticism."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Nergis Ertürk"],"book_id":"9780231214858","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780231214858.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":13.4537,"title":"Writing in Red","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780231214858"},{"authors":["Eric Lusito","Damon Murray","Stephen Sorrell","Paul Josephson"],"book_id":"9781068294600","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781068294600.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":13.4162,"title":"Soviet Scientific Institutes","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781068294600"},{"authors":["Cristina Vatulescu"],"book_id":"9781503641020","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781503641020.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":13.1088,"title":"Reading the Archival Revolution","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781503641020"},{"authors":["Tamara Hundorova","Sergiy Yakovenko"],"book_id":"9781644692387","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781644692387.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":13.0502,"title":"The Post-chornobyl Library","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781644692387"},{"authors":["Peter Pomerantsev","John Curless","PublicAffairs","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9781610396004","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781610396004.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":9.9203,"title":"Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781610396004"},{"authors":["Stephen Kotkin","Paul Hecht","Recorded Books","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9780143127864","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780143127864.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":9.9179,"title":"Stalin","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780143127864"},{"authors":["Julia Ioffe"],"book_id":"9780062879127","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062879127.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":9.8571,"title":"Motherland","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062879127"},{"authors":["Duncan White"],"book_id":"9780062449832","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062449832.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":9.8542,"title":"Cold Warriors","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062449832"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Reading lane: Russian Lit Crit and East European Literary Criticism.","Publisher: Columbia University Press."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":1,"goodreads_reviews_count":1,"quality_score":0.8135}}