Socialist Realism: Difference between revisions

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{{tropeUseful Notes}}
A style of art prevalent in the [[Soviet Union]] and Eastern Bloc roughly between [[World War II]] and the death of [[Joseph Stalin]]. It was the only official and acceptable style of poetry, architecture and essentially any other art (with the [[Culture Police]] ready to send you to the gulag if you disagreed).
 
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* ''Partisan.'' Advocating for Communism. The hero should either be oppressed by capitalists, agitating to crush capitalism, or owe much to the Communist Revolution - ideally all three. Depicting something merely because it exists is merely ''naturalism''—not good.
** Technically, the first two were called "critical realism" because they depicted life under capitalism. Actual socialist realism took place in a [[Utopia]]n depiction of socialism and gave writers nightmares trying to put some conflict in.
* ''Realistic.'' In terms of representation - none of the abstract modern art hated by your grandpa (and, for that matter, [[True Art Is Incomprehensible|dismissed]] and [[Le Film Artistique|made fun of]] on [[TVtroping Tropes]]wikis) - anything not strictly representational was "decadent", "bourgeois", "formalist" etc.
 
In fine arts:
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More [[wikipedia:Socialist realism|here]], at the [[Other Wiki]].
 
Here is a Russian joke story about [[Socialist Realism]] and Soviet censorship.
 
A young writer brings his first story to a publishing agency. The editor reads the first phrase: "The count was rattling cuffs on a parquet". "What? - he says. - A story about some anti-Soviet count? Where is the working class? Remake it!".
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And finally the writer brings the finished story. Its first line reads: "The count was rattling cuffs on a parquet, and down the street Vakula the blacksmith was forging some whatchamacallit and singing L'Internationale. 'Screw it!' said Vakula. 'I'll finish it tomorrow!'".
 
 
Not to be confused with [[Social Realism]], which is a related style but distinct genre. Many social realist artists were also socialists (though not necessarily Marxists), but the style is not necessarily political.