La petro-cultura in Russia. Dai prodotti petroliferi ai prodotti letterari

Abstract

This essay explores the cultural meaning and social significance of oil in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian culture through the analysis of two literary case studies. The first is a story written by I. Babel in 1934; the second is authored by D. Bykov and was published in 2017. Both are entitled Neft’ (Oil). The analysis follows the notion expressed in Bruno Latour’s Politics of nature (1999) which regards oil as a “miracle-product” of our time with potentially nefarious consequences. From the anthropocentric optimism of the Soviet era to the present-day sense that oil has become an uncontrollable “object”, this hybrid of nature and culture holds a significant and diverse place in Russian literature.