The Myth of the Non-Russian: Iskander and Aitmatov’s Magical Universe

The Myth of the Non-Russian explores the magical realist prose of two non-Slavic authors writing in Russian in the Soviet Union in the 1970’s-1980’s. Erika Haber argues that these authors juxtaposed their native myth with Soviet myth, thus undermining the Soviet prescription of national conformity in art by suggesting a plurality of worlds and truths.