Expeditionen in andere Welten
Sowjetische Abenteuerliteratur und Science-Fiction von der Oktoberrevolution bis zum Ende der Stalinzeit
[Expeditions to other worlds. Soviet adventure literature and science fiction from the October Revolution to the end of the Stalin era]

Adventure literature and science fiction were among the most popular literary genres in the Soviet Union. Here, the images of desires and horrors of the present could be projected into distant and exotic worlds. At the same time, this "boulevard literature" was controversial. Adventure literature was regarded as ideologically problematic colonial reading, while science fiction challenged official optimism about science and the future. For the first time, this neglected area of popular literature will be considered here. The author reconstructs the journalistic and internal debates about their genesis and works out the changing poetics in exemplary readings. He thus also provides fundamental insights into the functional mechanisms and aporia of Soviet cultural policy.