Dangerous Desires: Crisis of Democracy and Restoration of The Past in Russian Children Literature

Anna Boginskaya, University of Wroclaw

The paper presents a comparison of the book Land of Good Girls (2009) by Anna Starobinets and the film adaptation of this book Land of Good Kids directed by Olga Kaptur in 2013. The story about Polina Petrova shows the typical Russian family living in Moscow in the 2000s. Polina’s parents think that the girl has badly behaved and they make a wish that “bad” Polina will be replaced by a “good girl”. The family’s wish comes true and Polina ends up in a Land of Good Kids, which remains a totalitarian-utopian otherworld based on strict discipline and obedience, where “bad” children should be re-educated. The book and the film adaptation have numerous allusions to the recent political situation in Russia: the crisis of democracy and the strengthening of patriarchal sentiments. The visual content of the film brings allusions to the Russian feminist/anti-Putinist punk-rock group Pussy Riot, appeals to the imagery of the omnipresent conspiracy of NKVD/FSB, a secret policy. The novel by Anna Starobinets shows the historical and literary analogy between the USSR and present-day Russia. The Panopticon-like structure of the otherworld in the novel reflects the restoration of the vertical state power in Russia in the 2000s. The story of Polina also traces the concept of Good Girl, the author tries to answer the question of what means to be a Good Girl in modern Russia and what are parents’ expectations of their daughter. Anna Starobinets shows how girls’ character as well as appearance are shaped by these expectations, which leads to the reduction of kids’ individual features. Being a feminist activist, Anna Starobinets reconstructs society’s expectation from a woman. This paper address the question of how children literature reflects the influence of the past on the young generation, in particular girls.

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 Presented in Session 64. Talking about My Generation: Youth Crisis and Conflict