Aalborg Archipelago

Return from the Archipelago is the first comprehensive historical survey and critical analysis of the vast body of narrative literature about the Soviet gulag. Leona Toker organizes and characterizes both fictional narratives and survivors' memoirs as she explores the changing hallmarks of the genre from the 1920s through the Gorbachev era. Toker reflects on the writings and testimonies that shed light on the veiled aspects of totalitarianism, dehumanization, and atrocity. Identifying key themes that recur in the narratives -- arrest, the stages of trial, imprisonment, labor camps, exile, escapes, special punishment, the role of chance, and deprivation -- Toker discusses the historical, political, and social contexts of these accounts and the ethical and aesthetic imperative they fulfill. Her readings provide extraordinary insight into prisoners' experiences of the Soviet penal system. Special attention is devoted to the writings of Varlam Shalamov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, but many works that are not well known in the West, especially those by women, are addressed. Consideration is also given to events that recently brought many memoirs to light years after they were written. A pioneering book on an important subject, Return from the Archipelago is an authoritative resource for scholars in Russian history and literature.

Preface Map of Downtown Aalborg 1: In Some Remote Corner of the Universe 2: The Aalborg Project 3: Bacon and Nietzsche Come to Northern Jutland 4: Power Defines Reality 5: Rationality as Frozen Politics 6: The Rationality of Resistance 7: The Weakness of the Better Argument 8: The Longue Duree of Power 9: Rationality in the Context of Power 10: Interpretation over Truth 11: Antagonistic Reactions at Play 12: Farewell to Reason 13: The Dream Plan 14: Knowledge Kills Action 15: Minutiae Matter 16: Myths Die Hard 17: Exit the Innovators 18: A Single Drama...with an Endless Play of Dominations 19: Reality Check 20: Power Has a Rationality That Rationality Does Not KnowPostscript App. A: Main Actors in the Aalborg Project App. B: Chronology of the Aalborg Project App.