Memory and Attraction in the Russian Dystopia: Vladimir Sorokin’s Telluria

Abstract

Vladimir Sorokin’s novel Telluria (2013) off ers a complex exploration of memory and its manipulation within a post-apocalyptic Eurasian landscape, employing a fragmented narrative structure inspired by Sergei Eisenstein’s concept of the “montage of attractions.” This study analyzes the mechanisms of memory and forgetting, the function of “attractions” as disruptive narrative devices, and the ironic treatment of historical and individual identity in the novel. The analysis focuses on the interplay between individual and collective memory and the fi ctional substance of tellurium, which functions as a catalyst for altered states of consciousness and destabilizes the boundary between reality and illusion. The methodology combines close literary analysis with theoretical frameworks from memory studies, particularly Aleida Assmann’s concepts of memorial and cultural memory, as well as Eisenstein’s montage theory, to examine how Sorokin constructs a fragmented, multi-genre narrative that challenges linear models of historical representation. The results demonstrate that tellurium operates as a metaphor for mnemonic manipulation, highlighting the fragility of memory in a post-apocalyptic context in which historical truth dissolves into myth, and irony destabilizes conventional narratives. The novel’s montage structure intensifi es this eff ect, producing a collage of genres and perspectives that elicit both emotional and cognitive responses and compel the reader to reassess the reliability of memory in the formation of identity.