Stepping Through the Mirror: A Dystopian Vision of Regression and Stagnation in Tatyana Tolstaya’s The Slynx

Abstract

CESAA 17TH ANNUAL EUROPE ESSAY COMPETITION 2009 - Undergraduate winner: Danica Jenkins, University of Western Australia

In her novel ‘The Slynx’, Tatyana Tolstaya creates a dystopian world of regression and stagnation to critically reflect upon the historical patterns of Russia. By interweaving the phantasmagorical with the real, she uses fiction as a vehicle to meditate upon the cycles of progress and degeneration that have plagued Russian history. In lieu of mere social criticism, Tolstaya’s literary dystopia links the abstract world of fiction with the contemporary post-communist context of her writing, as a means to ruminate on the future direction of Russia at a time when the nation is at a crossroads. ‘The Slyn’x thus illustrates not only the disorder of trying to rebuild society after communism, but exposes also how the turmoil of modern Russian society is intrinsically linked to deep-rooted traditions of autocracy and dehumanisation. Subsequently, she emphasises that these customs are not simply imposed upon people from a top-down system of oppression, but ascertains that they are propagated from within the Russian consciousness to form an eternal and ineradicable component of the Russian psyche.