University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Triumphant bowls of socialism: A cultural history of the Soviet toilet

Hoppe, Nadia G.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115332

Description

Title
Triumphant bowls of socialism: A cultural history of the Soviet toilet
Author(s)
Hoppe, Nadia G.
Issue Date
2022-02-01
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Kaganovsky, Lilya
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Kaganovsky, Lilya
Committee Member(s)
  • Cooper, David
  • Romberg, Kristen
  • Sobol, Valeria
Department of Study
Slavic Languages & Literature
Discipline
Slavic Languages & Literature
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • toilet
  • grotesque
  • Soviet
  • Moscow Conceptualism
  • SZ Group
  • Ilya Kabakov
Abstract
This dissertation traces the role of the toilet in Soviet art, film, and literature from the 1917 Russian Revolution through the end of the twentieth century. It analyzes the toilet as art object, as trope, and as metaphor in order to identify the particularities of Russian artistic and literary movements throughout the twentieth century and also to examine how they are informed by narratives of the body. The toilet – unique in the universality of its need and its liminality between private and public – becomes a symbolic means to understand how the literal and metaphorical "mess" of the human body does or does not conform to the real-life transformation of interior and exterior spaces.
Graduation Semester
2022-05
Type of Resource
Thesis
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2022 Nadia G. Hoppe

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