Resilience and Identity in Deborah Ellis’s “The Breadwinner”: The Fluidity of Gender Under Oppression

Before diving into this essay, you may want to read Deborah Ellis's The Breadwinner or watch the movie adaptation (available on Netflix) to fully appreciate the analysis. Engaging with the source material firsthand will enhance your experience as you explore the complexities of identity and resilience under oppression. The story is available at the following link: https://newtonschools.sch.qa/wp-content/uploads/The-Breadwinner-by-Ellis-Deborah-z-lib.org_.epub_.pdf

  The Taliban seized Kabul in 1996 and announced the beginning of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which lasted six years. The Taliban regime was established through conservative religious and political factions, imposed violently on citizens, resulting in the brutal oppression of women, imprisonment of innocents, public executions, house searches, and mass murders. Despite strict surveillance, millions of Afghans managed to flee the country, with a significant number of these being children.

  The psychological damage inflicted on Afghan children who experienced the horrors of the Taliban regime has been increasingly discussed in media, art, and political spheres. Writers like Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner), Nadia Hashimi (The Pearl Broke Its Shell) and Atiq Rahimi (Earth and Ashes) have portrayed the weight of the military dictatorship in Afghanistan through the perspectives of young characters. One such work is Deborah Ellis’s The Breadwinner. Ellis, a Canadian human rights activist, dedicates her work “To the children of war”. The novel depicts the life of eleven-year-old Parvana, who desperately tries to survive and provide for her family in Kabul in 2001. A particularly stricking theme in the novel is Parvana’s use of the survival strategy called bacha posh - a practice in which Afghan girls dress like boys to freely leave their homes. This theme reflects the duality of human nature, and Ellis’s novel, though targeted at a young audience, conveys a powerful anti-war message.  

  In The Breadwinner, Parvana’s character undergoes a significant transformation as she shifts between her female and male identities, creating an ambiguity that is central to the novel’s exploration of survival under opressive regimes. This essay analyzes Parvana’s character before and after she embraces bacha posh, divided into two sections:  ‘Parvana: the Resilient Daughter’ and ‘Kaseem: the Surviving Son’. The analysis explores Parvana’s role as a female in Afghan society and emphasizes that Kaseem is not just a mere imitiation of male traits but a significant part of Parvana’s personality.

  Bacha posh (from Persian – “dressed up as a boy”) is a tradition still practiced in Afghanistan, though its prevalence is not officially recorded. It is a survival strategy commonly used by children of war. According to the literary scholar Amel Abbady, bacha posh is a forbidden practice in Muslim culture, as it is seen as alienating from God’s creation. The Qur’an and the first hadith state that men must not cross-dress as women, and women are not allowed to represent themselves as men. However, Abbady argues that since Muslims believe actions must be judged by their motives, the act of bacha posh can be accepted because of its survival essence. The female-to-male cross-dressers’ motives are regarded as expressions of social dissatisfaction with the oppression imposed on them. Abbady suggests that bacha posh is often used when a girl needs to receive education, provide for her family, or avoid abuse under severe misogynistic law. This acceptaance of bacha posh, however, does not align with the Taliban’s views portrayed in the novel, though Parvana’s and others’ families approve of this act despite the cultural and religious principles mentioned by Abbady.

Parvana: The Resilient Daughter

  The first time the audience meets Parvana, she is described as

trying to “make herself look smaller”, wanting to “be invisible”, and having “even got used to holding her tongue and hiding her face.”

These passages present Parvana as a traumatized young child who avoids trouble, dealing with anger and sadness evoked by helplessness. For instance, she prefers not to think about the poverty caused by the bombs, as these thoughts are overwhelming and confusing. The impact of war and the discriminatory regime has left psychological damage on her, and throughout the novel, she tries to suppress or neglect memories and emotions due to the extreme and circumstances surrounding her. Her father advises her to keep her distance from neighbors because the Taliban encourage spying and to “Never rely on the railing”, a metaphor for the disintegration of Afghanistan’s sense of community. The lack of communication with others confuses Parvana – she understands the need to prioritize safety, but also feels isolated.

  However, after her father’s arrest, Parvana adapts impressivly quickly. Four days after her previous resentment toward fetching water, she does so without regard for her bleeding feet, driven by the need to help her family. She speaks freely to Mrs. Weera, a colleague of her mother from the former Afghan Women’s Union, ignoring her father’s advice to keep her distance. Parvana finds courage in the image of the brave young Malali, an Afghan heroine who helped lead troops to victory during the war with the British army. Parvana sees Malali as a role model, comparing herself to the war hero as a coping mechanism in fearsome situations. These events depict Parvana before her transformation into Kaseem, before her embrace of bacha posh. She is portrayed as an impressively resilient person, willing to adapt to relentless conditions despite being cast out of society.

  Judith Butler reflects on society’s tendency on categorizing people into a group of Others, stating that communities stigmatize and outcast individuals. According to Butler, this process involves “the ejection and transvaluation of something originally part of identity into a defiling otherness”.

She argues that discrimination of minorities stems from the act of “expulsion” followed by “repulsion”.

In the case of Afghan women under the Taliban regime, the authorities’ misogynistic approach excludes women from society. However, those subjected of this expulsion may voluntarily exclude themselves by accepting their status as Others. Butler argues that this process changes the identity of the Other, significantlly altering it from its initial form and the politically imposed identity.

Ellis represents Afghan women as part of Butler’s Others throughout the novel. Despite their “otherness”, the women in The Breadwinner have accepted their expulsion from society, but continue to fight against the identity differentiation that threatens them. Both of Parvana’s parents are portrayed as part of Butler’s Others. Parvana’s father, who has lost a leg, can be seen as an outcast due to his disability, while her mother, Fatana, is categorized as an Others simply because she is a woman. Despite their exclusion from society, Parvana’s parents support liberal ideas, believe in gender equality, and avoid following Taliban’s extreme rules. Parvana’s father is an open-minded person, teaching his children tolerance and empathy, and even defies his persecutors during his arrest. Before her husband’s arrest, Fatana excludes herself from the community, refusing to go out, and finding no purpose in writing or returning to her old job. However, after her husband is taken away, she composes herself, organizes a secret school for women, and begins publishing an illegal magazine. Mrs. Weera, another character, consistently defies Taliban’s rules, helping Parvana’s family and working on secret projects with Fatana. The resilience and willpower of these characters serve as a driving force for Parvana’s survival, motivating her to continue being the breadwinner for her family.

Kaseem: The Surviving Son

  Parvana does not find comfort in the company of her older sister, Nooria, and is jealous of her “beautiful hair, long and thick”. Parvana dreams of growing her hair as long as Nooria’s and the two constantly fight. Parvana also feels unfairness when her parents decide to sell her last shalwar kameez. These details reflect Parvana’s rather natural adherence to female values. However, when she agrees to embrace bacha posh and cuts her hair, she accepts and likes her new look. This reaction can be interpreted as Parvana’s realization that under the Taliban regime long hair imposes restrictions, while short hair provides freedom. This scene connects with the beginning of the novel when she envies the “tea boys” at the market, expressing desire to run as freely as they do. As Kaseem, Parvana fulfills this wish, suggesting that Kaseem has always been part of her, waiting to be evoked.

  According to Butler, feminist theorists often view practices such as drag and cross-dressing as “degrading to women”. However, she argues that there is complexity within the connection between an initial form and its imitation, suggesting that

gender parody “does not assume that there is an original which such parodic identities imitate”.

In Parvana’s case, her biological sex and the lack of a male family member place her in a group of repressed people who are outcasts in society. Butler’s theory suggests that cross-dressing as a gender parody represents

“a transfiguration of an Other who is always already a “figure” and can be summarized as “a fantasy of a fantasy”.

Kaseem, therefore, is not a mere imitation of a boy, but a part of Parvana that has been oprressed and is now emerging as a survival strategy. Over time, Kaseem develops into a distinct aspect of Parvana’s identity, so much that Parvana and Kaseem become one person. She does not model Kaseem after anyone else, but instead develops her male personality, guided by her intuition.

  Abbady argues that bacha posh can be seen as a “mere illusion” because of the performer’s biological sex. However, Ellis shows the impact of this illusion on Parvana’s mother. When Parvana first dresses as her deceased brother, Hossain, her mother quietly grieves:

“What’s wrong with Mother now?” “(…) She got upset after seeing you in Hossain’s clothes. Can you blame her?”.

The detail illustrates the powerful emotional effect of bacha posh, despite its “artificial” nature. The illusion of bacha posh while not physically transforming Pavana into a boy, deeply influences her identity and the perceptions of those around her. It represents more than just a change in appearance; it is a psychological shift that affects Parvana’s behavior, self-perception, and her relationship with her family.

  Kaseem becomes an essential part of Parvana’s survival, allowing her to navigate the male-dominated society under the Taliban. This dual identity gives Parvana the freedom to move in public spaces and perform tasks that would otherwise be impossible for her as a girl. The physical disguise of bacha posh empowers Parvana, but also blurs the lines between male and female identities, showing that gender roles are socially constructed and can be fluid in extreme circumstances. Ellis illustrates this fluidity through Parvana’s ease in slipping into her role as Kaseem, which suggests the attributes of masculinity and femininity are not inherent but can be adopted and shed based on necessity.

Butler’s theory of gender performativity supports this idea by arguing that

gender is not a stable identity but an ongoing performance shaped by societal expectations and constraints.

Parvana’s adoption of Kaseem is a form of gender performativity, where she acts out the role of a boy to meet the needs of ther family and survive in a hostile environment. This performance is not just a disguise but a transformative experience that alters Parvana’s understanding of herself and her place in the world.

  Ellis uses Parvana’s transformation into Kaseem to challenge the rigid gender norms imposed by the Taliban, highlighting the resilience and adaptability required to survive under oppressive regimes. As Kaseem, Parvana claims space in society that seeks to erase her, taking on responsibilities unthinkable for her as a girl, such as interacting with strangers, earning money, and even digging up bones to sell. This dual identity becomes more than just survival tactic; it’s a vital part of Parvana’s identity, though it also brings internal conflict as she navigates balance between her female identity and her male persona. The fluidity of her gender identity ultimately becomes of strength, enabling her to adapt to the dangerous world around her.

  The novel concludes with Parvana and her father being reunited, deciding to flee Kabul. However, she does not leave Kaseem and her father embraces her as the loving paternal figure she has longed for all this time:

“Now you are both my daughter and my son, (…)”

  In The Breadwinner, Deborah Ellis not only tells a story of survival but also explores the complexities of identity in a repressive society. Parvana’s transformation into Kaseem illustrates the fluidity of gender and the power of adaptability in the face of oppression. By embracing bacha posh, Parvana resists the Taliban’s attempts to silence and control women, asserting her agency and chellenging the rigid gender norms imposed by the regime. The novel ultimately suggests that identity is not fixed but can be shaped and reshaped by the circumstances and the choices one makes, even in the most difficult situations.

Works Cited

Primary source

Ellis, Deborah. The Breadwinner. Oxford UP, 2014.

Secondary sources

Abbady, Amel. “Afghanistan’s Bacha Posh’: Gender-Crossing in Nadia Hashimi’s 

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell.” Muslim Women Speaking Persistently, special issue of Women Studies, vol. 51, no. 2, 2022, pp. 242-53, doi: 10.1080/00497878.2021.2023531.

“Bacha Posh.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 June, 2022, 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_posh. Acessed 14 July 2022. 

Butler, Judith. “Gender Trouble.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. edited by

Vincent B. Leitch, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 2374-88.

Illustration by Daby Faidhi

The Dark Twist of Routine: Exploring Danger in “An Encounter” by James Joyce

To fully appreciate the nuances and analysis presented in this essay, readers are encouraged to first read James Joyce’s short story, “An Encounter” part of the short-story collection “Dubliners”. Engaging with the text beforehand will enhance your understanding of the themes and subtleties explored in the essay, offering a richer and more informed reading experience. The story is available at the following link: https://www.owleyes.org/text/dubliners/read/an-encounter#root-74337-1-1

James Joyce’s short story “An Encounter” depicts the protagonist’s experience with a strange old man during a day out. The amount of time in which the stranger and the main character interact is considerable and their conversation evolves from casual to rather odd and unsettling. Their encounter serves as a focal point in the story, which is evident from the title of the piece. Most notably, the man’s opinions and beliefs are paired with the overall theme of the text and create a contrast with the rather cheerful depiction of Dublin, which reflects on the protagonist by the end of the story. This close reading analysis aims to answer the following research question: How does the old man’s interference influence the ‘adventurous’ day off the protagonist has in Dublin?

Firstly, it has to be mentioned that the narrator in “An Encounter” can be defined both as homodiegetic and intradiegetic narrator – an approach which contributes to the overall framing of the events within the story. A homodiegetic narrator is a character within the story who tells the narrative from their own perspective, while an intradiegetic narrator is one who exists within the story’s world and participates in the events they describe. It is clearly shown that the protagonist is a young boy who attends school regularly: “Every evening after school” and who tries to escape the boring routine of everyday life through novels set in the Wild West:

The adventures related in the literature of the Wild West were remote from my nature but, at least, they opened doors of escape.

The boy finds escapism in the imaginary situations which he constructs with his friends. Moreover, he is described as a typical child, which can be understood in the scene where a teacher in school finds out that one of the protagonist’s friends reads The Apache Chief during class and expresses strict disapproval of the book. The main character states that this rebuke “awakened one of my consciences” – a reaction typical for a child who, when scolded, feels guilt without knowing why. Nevertheless, children’s opinions change quickly and this is confirmed by the following sentence:

But when the restraining influence of school was at a distance I began to hunger again for wild sensations, for the escape which those chronicles of disorder alone seemed to offer me.

The frequent use of the word ‘escape’ suggests that the protagonist strives for adventures and exciting life. After he and his friends miss a school day to explore Dublin, these adventurous situations are presented through an over-exaggerated child’s perspective. The boy and his friend, Mahony, are intrigued by every part of Dublin – the Pigeon House, the working cranes, the quays, the Norwegian sailors. Overall, the protagonist’s adventure day in Dublin begins with the exact thrill he wished to experience. However, the end of the day delivers a rather dark contrast to the whole story and emphasizes on the main message of the text.

  The appearance of the old man is sudden and unexpected; however, he is not initially represented as unpleasant. His thoughts immediately begin dwelling on his past, depicting the nostalgic nature of his character – “[…] he would give anything to be young again”, “While he expressed these sentiments […]”. The stranger’s states that some of Lord Lytton’s works are not appropriate for young boys. Lytton not only wrote about eroticism and violence, but was a figure surrounded by sex scandals. Mentioning Lytton suggests that the stranger might love to discuss inappropriate stories with the young boys before him. After the old man mentions that

Every boy […] has a little sweetheart

the protagonist cannot help but notice that the old man shivers and his intonation reveals some kind of fear or chill. The boy feels that something is wrong with the man in front of him; however, his innocence does not allow him to process the reasons behind this intuition. The stranger’s fear might be his elderly sense of wariness when talking about young girls. Throughout the rest of the encounter, the old man forgets this sense and his inner urge for restraint gradually fades. Every time his nostalgia for the past - specifically for the young ‘sweethearts’ he had - circles “round and round in the same orbit”, he forgets any precautions and dives into his twisted desires. After the monologue is over, he walks away and Mahony draws attention to the stranger, describing him as a “queer old josser”. This description is influenced by the unsettling behavior of the old man after he leaves, which includes actions that disturb Mahony and contribute to his negative assessment of the stranger. It is peculiar to be noted that the protagonist does not check if Mahony is right or wrong, therefore hinting at the feeling of embarrassment which the boy experiences. After suggesting the fake names he and Mahony should take, it becomes clear that the main character is afraid and uncomfortable. However, his passiveness remains until the end of the story. The attitude of the old man changes completely upon his return: “he seemed to have forgotten his recent liberalism”. Mahony leaves the conversation – a method used to isolate the two characters and create even more pressure in the situation. The indirect discourse through which the stranger’s monologue is described leads the reader to experiencing something similar to the boy’s confusion and emphasizes the shock he goes through. The repetitive lexicon of punishment he uses: “slap”, “chastise”, whipped” builds a peculiar unsettling parallel with the Wild West thematic in the beginning of the story. However, this time the danger is real and the main character does not enjoy the thrill of it. 

“An Encounter” suggests that an escapism from the boring routine can be exciting. However, it can also be disturbing. The discomforting encounter plays a significant role in the protagonist’s thrilling day – the young boy realizes that real life adventures can be dangerous. Moreover, the monotonous figure of the old man embodies routine itself and reveals that repetition can persist even when one has new, strange experiences.      

Appendix (for additional close reading)

• The Pigeon House is rich in symbolism within the text. Set one week before the Holy Spirit celebration (Pentecost), the pigeon traditionally represents the Holy Spirit. However, instead of having an encounter with something pure and innocent, the boys are approached by a figure with the exact opposite characteristics, contrasting with the expected symbolism.

• When the protagonist meets the Norwegian sailors at the quays he examines them to check if they have green eyes, but his hopes are refuted. However, later when he looks the old man directly into his eyes he cannot help, but notice that his eyes are “bottle-green”. This detail contributes to the creepy atmosphere and emphasizes the dark twist in the protagonist’s day. Considering that green is also the national color of Ireland, the old man might symbolize the more sinister aspects of Irish society. 

• The perverted nature of the stranger is evident from his initial actions. At first he seems to intend to pass by the protagonist and Mahony, but upon realizing that they are schoolboys, he decides to approach them. This shift highlights his predatory nature and establishes a sense of foreboding.

• The portrayal of the main character is that of a timid boy who fears being perceived as ashamed or inferior in the eyes of the others. He participates in the Wild West games with the other children to avoid being seen as a bookworm. Later, he pretends to have read the works mentioned by the old man to avoid appearing uncultured or uneducated. This behavior reflects his anxiety about social acceptance and his internal struggle with identity. 

• The ambiguity in Joe Dillon’s character is illustrated by his chaotic behavior and interest in priesthood. This duality is evident when comparing his immaturity with his fascination for the strictness of the Catholic Church. This contrast highlights and adds complexity to his character.

•  The appearance of the stranger is foreshadowed by the setting of the sun. When the atmosphere of the story is cheerful and positive during the day, the onset of darkness signals the approach of danger. This shifts in the environment mirrors the transition from adventure to menace.

• There is an interesting resemblance between the protagonist and the stranger in their shared tendency to be bookish. Both exhibit criticism toward Mahony’s rough personality, which underscores their common traits and their differing views on social behavior. 

• Violence is initially treated as a humorous topic among the boys when they imagine how Leo Dillon’s father will beat him. However, when the old man expresses excitement about beating young boys, the protagonist’s perception of violence shifts, and it is no longer seen as something to laugh at. This change highlights the protagonist’s growing awareness of real-life dangers and the stark contrast between childish fantasy and harsh reality.

Works Cited

Joyce, James. “An Encounter” Dubliners, Garland Publishing, 1993, pp. 11-19.

Illustration by Aleksandra Waliszewska

The Triumph of Mass Culture in “Exit through the Gift Shop: a Banksy Film”

The process of industrialisation had a huge impact on daily life, transforming it into a paradoxical, yet dynamic synthesis of perpetual changes and monotonous repetitions. In the 21st century, the culture industry, or the so-called mass culture, increased drastically due to the constant development of the world. Despite the negativities which mass culture delivers, such as low-quality products consumed daily by ordinary people, the existence of the culture industry created a peculiar branch in the arts, namely,  the underground movement of street art. The research Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing and Representing the City, edited by Konstantinos Avramidis and Myrto Tsilimpounid, examines the socio-political implications and artistic value of street art and graffiti. It claims that one of the initial ideologies of street art aims to deride the commercialism of mass culture and to deconstruct the mainstream clichés created by it. However, Exit through the Gift Shop: a Banksy Film represents how street art becomes part of the culture industry. The protagonist in Banksy’s documentary – Thierry Guetta, better known by his artistic pseudonym as Mr. Brainwash, is portrayed as the one who manages to ‘infect’ the street art field with mass culture. Mr. Brainwash’s exhibition deflates street art’s essence, transforming it into a meaningless, monotonous parade of commercialism. Adorno and Horkheimer’s theory on mass culture suggests that the culture industry standardises and commodifies cultural goods, leading to a passive consumption that reinforces existing social hierarchies. This essay aims to answer the following research question: How are elements of Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s theory on mass culture reflected in Mr. Brainwash’ art? Understanding the essence and function of the culture industry is crucial to exploring its impact on street art.

The insight on mass culture, provided by Adorno and Horkheimer in Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception elaborates on the topic with a detailed approach. Let’s narrow down the culture industry’s main traits and functions. The aforementioned article states that:

The culture industry does not sublimate: it suppresses.

Dwight McDonald, a renowned literary scholar and critic, states in his research A Theory of Mass Culture, that culture industry attaches as “a parasitic… growth on High Culture” suggesting that the newly created form from this ‘parasite’ does not improve the initial product – it conceals it. According to Adorno and Horkheimer, the new subject produced by mass culture represents an “aesthetic simulation” which manages “to present fulfillment in its brokenness”. It is important to mention that mass culture’s main purpose is gaining profit. In addition, according to Dalton’s  and Kramer’s article Coarseness in U.S. Public Communication, culture industry transforms the definition of art 

from inherent quality to commodity exchange.

Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception argues that: 

Culture today is infecting everything with sameness.

It is further stated that the repetition of clichéd products disguised as new ones can be noticed even in the architectural plan of cities. The article claims that the power of the culture industry managed to leave its imprint in every corner of the world. Street art could not escape from the impact of mass culture, as well. This analysis sets the stage for understanding how street art, initially a form of resistance, can be co-opted by the same industry it seeks to critique.

The first half of Exit through the Gift Shop: a Banksy Film represents its protagonist, the middle-aged Frenchman Thierry Guetta, in a rather positive light. Guetta explores the rebellious spirit of street art by documenting all of his experiences on camera. According to Banksy, Guetta’s actions were regarded by most of the graffiti artists as helpful for the street art field due to the “shorter life span” of the pieces. However, in the second half of the movie, Guetta decides to become an artist himself and creates his pseudonym – Mr. Brainwash. A possible interpretation is that Mr. Brainwash is a reflection of Guetta’s perception of graffiti art. According to Banksy’s expectations, Mr. Brainwash’s art had to be a representation of his years spent in observance of the master artists in the field.  However, the exhibition which Thierry organizes not only proves that the man did not understand any of street art’s aims, but it also plays a pivotal part in the culture industry’s prevail over street art. According to Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing and Representing the City, street art aims to 

 go against the flow of the prevailing medium

By being illegal, street art manages to incorporate further significance to its messages; besides, its public representation provides everyone with an access to it. However, by confining independent public art between four walls, Mr. Brainwash transforms it into an institutionalized public art, thus deviating from its original identity as street art. The existence of Mr. Brainwash’s  exhibition does not sublimate graffiti art – it suppresses it. Mr. Brainwash does not become a celebrity of craftsmanship due to years of practice and dedication, he manages to “miss all of that” and propose to his audience pieces which copy the style of other artists. For example, he copies the style of Andy Warhol’s famous Campbell’s Soup Can and creates a piece named Campbell’s Soup Spray Can. This example portrays that Mr. Brainwash not only lacks his own style,but it also proves that the artist himself does not respect the messages of the paintings which he copies. As Banksy states in the documentary: 

Andy Warhol made a statement by repeating famous icons until they become meaningless… but Thierry really made them meaningless.

By stating this, Banksy explains that Andy Warhol’s art aimed to mock the commerciality by making it meaningless; however, Mr. Brainwash’ pieces commercialized Andy Warhol himself and deprived Warhol’s paintings from their meaning. Mr. Brainwash’ art represents an “aesthetic simulation” which fulfills the passive consumers. Copying others’ styles also depicts the “sameness” of mass culture mentioned in Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. Additionally, Guetta’s focus on profit underscores the commodification of street art by the culture industry. 

When he is introduced in the movie, he works in an outlet selling imitations of expensive clothes: 

… So for a sum of 50$, sometime I could make 5.000$!

This character trait does not change until the end of the movie where he manages to sell his Campbell’s Soup Spray Can for approximately a million dollars. Mr. Brainwash’s exhibition remains active for two months due to Guetta’s realization that street art can be a gold mine.  Thierry’s purpose of creating an exhibition embodies culture industry’s main purpose – gaining profit from “inherent quality” of art only for a “commodity exchange”. This consistent focus on profit aligns Mr. Brainwash’s actions with the goals of mass culture.

By the end of the film Thierry speaks of himself as an artist; however according to Banksy and Shepard Fairy (a distinguished American street artist), Thierry mostly copied and reproduced other’s street art works. It seems he does not realize that, but it can be suggested that ironically his pseudonym – Mr. Brainwash, hints that by the end he managed to take advantage both of the passive consumers and of the revolutionary artists. In conclusion, Mr. Brainwash’ exhibition serves as a tragic ending to Exit through the Gift Shop: a Banksy Film, because it confirms Horkheiemer’s and Adorno’s theory that 

The whole world is passed through the filter of culture industry

Mr. Brainwash gains profit from street art, and mass culture triumphantly ‘infects’ yet another branch with ‘sameness’. This case study exemplifies how even subversive art forms are not immune to the pervasive influence of culture industry. 

Works cited: 

Primary sources

Adorno, Theodor W. Horkheimer, Max. Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, edited by Vincent B. Leitch, 2018.

Banksy, director. Exit through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film. Paranoid Pictures, 2018.

Secondary sources

Dalton, Philip, and Eric Mark Kramer. Coarseness in U.S. Public Communication, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2012.

Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing and Representing the City, edited by Konstantinos Avramidis, Myrto Tsilimpoundini, New York: Routledge, 2017.

MacDonald, Dwight. A Theory of Mass Culture, Diogenes, no. 3, 1953.

The Concept of Postmemorial Experience in “The Art of Flying” by Antonio Altarriba

Almost immediately after its publication in 2009, The Art of Flying became a significant landmark in the history of the graphic novel in Spain. The emotional resonance of Spain’s historical events during the 20th century, the touching synthesis of collective memories and the complex yet intriguing figure of the protagonist immerse the readers in a sensual adventure of enduring memory. The novel is awarded several prizes, including the 2010 National Comic Prize, and has multiple translated copies in five other languages. One of the reasons for the novel’s success lies in its exploration of postmemorial experience through which the narrator tells the story of his father, Antonio Altarriba Senior. Postmemory refers to the relationship that the “generation after” bears to the personal, collective, and cultural trauma of those who came before, experiences that they “remember” only by means of the stories, images, and behaviours among which they grew up. For example, children in post-Soviet countries often experience postmemory, feeling the impact of the Soviet regime’s traumas through the stories and experiences of their parents and grandparents, despite not having lived through it themselves. This phenomenon underscores the depth of the collective memory and its lasting influence across generations. The portrayal of the protagonist’s solitary flight through life and the narrator’s traumatic experience of losing a parent indisputably justify the novel’s acclaim. Another reason for its popularity is Spain’s ongoing exploration of its past. The Spanish Civil War and World War II left profound scars on society, continuing to fuel public interest until present days. These historical events shaped destinies, transformed lives, and left deep wounds on survivors. Illustrated under the pseudonym Kim, the novel vividly captures this era of chaos, madness and sorrow in a perfectly fitting realistic, sometimes even grotesque manner. Therefore, The Art of Flying stands as a groundbreaking recollection of memories based on a personal postmemorial experiences, depicting the life of ordinary Spaniards during the 20th century. This essay will focus on the narrator’s postmemorial approach and examine the postwar experience of the protagonist.

Altarriba’s novel begins with a prologue where the 90-years-old Antonio Senior attempts a suicide. His son, who continues the biographical essence of the novel to create a peculiar testament of his father’s life, shares:

It took my father ninety years to fall from the fifth floor.

This statement hints the overall reason behind the protagonist’s suicide – Antonio’s whole life was mainly composed of tragic events, whose weight became unbearable through the years. The whole book consists of four sections, which indicate the protagonist’s progress towards the ground and remind to the reader the inevitable ending of Antonio’s journey.

The first chapter, called The Wooden Car, focuses on the protagonist’s dark and traumatic childhood, which he spends in a small village. Due to the recent settlement of villagers at the location, the soil is still uncultivated, leading to everyone starts surrounding their lands with walls. The protagonist includes this seemingly insignificant detail for a deeper reason:

So I grew up with my perspective blocked by the walls of others’ ambitions…/ Or maybe it’s better to say misery.

However, Antonio and the other kids start using the walls for fun and games, which leads to the following comment:

I grew up enough to climb over the barriers…/ …To outwit some…/ To jump over others…/ But I never grew enough to overcome them entirely.

These quotes sum up Antonio’s life – he is hindered by insurmountable obstacles, but his urge for freedom helps him adapt and overcome them.

In the second chapter, Durruti’s Espadrilles, Antonio is forced to fight for the fascist army, but he climbs over the walls of the military base to join the Republicans. When travelling with Spanish refugees and trapped in a labor camp, he escapes. When arrested by German soldiers and taken to a base that distributes people to concentration camps, he escapes again. Antonio’s iron will helps him accomplishes his aims, even in the last section of the novel – The Mole’s Den, where he lives as a depressed old man in an infirmary. The nurses constantly watch over him, but his sharp mind and analytical skills help him get to the right floor at the right time to attempt a suicide. The constant cycle of safety and danger, happiness and sorrow, stagnation and action create a convincing representation not only of the 20th century suffering Spanish soldier, but of every person who had to live during these unsettled times.

Aurora Mocrillo’s historical research Memory and Cultural History of the Spanish Civil War: Realms of Oblivion claims that:

[…] the war violently disrupted the ‘natural’ order of things and the dictatorship exploited through terror its role as arbiter of order after the victory of 1939.

The postwar experience is depicted in Altarriba’s novel, as well. In the third chapter – Bitter Biscuits, Antonio has to suppress his anarchist ideals in order to survive under Franco’s regime. Due to the historical context of the novel, the concept of social reconciliation in The Art of Flying points only in one direction – accepting the fascist regime. After World War II, the dictatorship of Francisco Franco still existed, leading to the belief that:

[…] only the ‘Reds’ [Republicans] were killers and only the ‘Blues’ [fascists] were victims.

When Antonio returns to Spain his only option for job is provided by his cousin’s husband, Doroteo Acin, who serves Franco’s party. Doroteo warns him:

Here all that revolution and anarchy stuff is over and done with…/ And you don’t want anyone finding out about your past… There’s a lot of people rotting away in prison for less than what you’ve done…

Doroteo and his friends force Antonio to attend banquets where they constantly sing anti-anarchist songs and curse fallen Republican soldiers.

Characters like Lucio and Ramon represent social reconciliation. Lucio, who once initiated young Antonio into anarchism, has transformed into a defender of Francoism, claiming that no country can prosper in an environment of revolution and chaos, and Spain needs order and peace. Ramon, who worked in the secret post office of the Republicans during the Civil War, had also switched political sides, denying any involvement in the war when greeted by Antonio. The protagonist expresses his thoughts on this revulsion:

It wasn’t just betrayal, it was ideological suicide… To face the present, you had to obliterate the past… To die in order to stay alive…

The quote relates to a significant opposition as a postwar cultural phenomenon – the politics of forgetting in a contradiction with the remembrance of the survivors. Altarriba’s novel portrays this opposition Kim’s abstract illustrations, supporting the surrealistic tone of Antonio’s nightmares.

When the protagonist returns to Spain, he faces all results from the wars which do not appeal to his principles. His confusion grows into panic while he walks around the streets of Zaragoza and sees memorials of fascist soldiers and monuments of praised fascist figures such as Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera – the founder of Spain’s fascist phalange. Antonio’s panic transforms into a horrific nightmare in which a huge eagle (a fascist symbols) gouges his eyes out. The last illustration depicts the blind protagonist, who is thankful for not seeing, while in the background thousands of dead soldiers fly up to the sky. The weight of the “ideological suicide”, as Antonio Senior calls it, crushes his spirit, and until the end of the novel, he shares his past as a Republican soldier only with his wife.

As explained in the first paragraph, the prologue of the novel introduces the protagonist Antonio Senior and the narrator - Antonio’s son. Just on the first page, the narrator explains metaphorically how he manages to know all the protagonist’s actions:

I am descended from my father, I am his prolongation, and even when I wasn’t yet born, I already partook of everything that happened to him… As his genetic potential…

The narrator’s decision to metaphorically incarnate into his father derives from his need to understand better the reason behind the old man’s suicide. But it is also because Antonio’s son is a subject of postmemorial recollection. The following quote by Alison Ribeiro’s research, Embodying Memory in Contemporary Spain, defines the position of the narrator as a figure with a postmemorial experience:

the (possibly unwilling) second-generation inheritor of silenced or repressed traumas who carries the memories of others

Antonio’s son continues his narration from first-person until the beginning of the first section. Afterwards he dives deeply into his postmemory. The process of his “incarnation” can be traced from the first three panels at the beginning of the chapter:

My father – now myself (…)/ My grandfather, who is now my father (…)/ I – now we will leave it as I – (…),

after which the narrator’s focal point is completely replaced by Antonio Senior’s perspective. This continues throughout the whole novel even in scenes where the protagonist meets his son. In the third section, when Antonio’s son is born, the protagonist thoughts express the same genetic bond that the narrator depicts in the prologue:

I can only explain it as the connection between two bodies with the same blood… I felt myself inside him and that from then on, I would be with him…”

Alison Ribeiro reveals that:

[…] reality is a wound, and the emotional and imaginative engagement that the rememberer feels with the past in attempting to overcome this [false traumatic experience]

By completely accepting his father’s perspective, the narrator both perpetuates Antonio Senior’s name and tries to heal his own traumas from past events during which he was not yet born.

In conclusion, despite its tragic tone, The Art of Flying portrays a protagonist who despite being a mere speck in the vortex of unfortunate events, adapts and “fly despite all obstacles” (Altarrida 103). Antonio Senior lives as a soldier beyond the war, battling post-traumatic experience, forming a family and grappling with lost friends. The novel’s seamless blend of narrative and authorial voices creates a compelling biography rooted in a postmemorial experience, offering a poignant portrayal not only of Antonio’s life but also of countless of Spaniards enduring the war. Despite Antonio’s burdens, the novel teaches that even in the darkest of times, one can find solace and even transcendence through dark humor, sex, driving cars, rebellion and friendship. 

Works cited

Primary source:

Altarriba, Antnio and Kim. The Art of Flying. Jonathan Cape, 2015.

Secondary source: 

Mocrillo, Aurora. Memory and Cultural History of Spanish Civil War: Realms of Oblivion. BRILL, 2013.

Ribeiro, de Mnezes, Alison. Embodying Memory in Contemporary Spain. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2014.

Daniil Kharms: Absurdism in the Shadow of Soviet Oppression

The Oxford dictionary of English defines the term “absurdism” as “the belief that humans exist in a world with no purpose or order”. This definition has derived from Albert Camus’ existentialist philosophy and it is used from many other authors of the twentieth century such as Franz Kafka or Samuel Beckett. In art, absurdism was included as part of surrealism, and many painters such as Dada or Michael Cheval were driven by its inspiration while drawing some of their masterpieces. Later, absurdism was displayed on the big screen thanks to artists such as the troupe of Monty Python. All of these artists focused on the representation of fictional universes, which function without any laws or particular order; they are chaotic and do not let any logic to their system.

One of the first discoverers of the absurdist genre was Daniil Kharms. He was a Russian author, who lived, wrote and died in Russia during the 1930s of the 20th century. He focused on writing in the absurdist genre and used the background setting of the crisis as an inspiration for his works. All of his content was considered a danger to the Soviet system, therefore everything under the name of Kharms was banned and not published due to political grounds. Some of his texts had a preventative censorship, some of them were banned after publication due to the strict measures in the USSR during this time period. Kharms was unknown by his contemporaries and he mostly survived because of his poetry for children, however his talent was acknowledged almost a century later. His works were analysed in depth revealing his extraordinary way of creating and the essence of his nonsense stories.

Dannil Yuvachev was born in 1905 in St. Petersburg. His father, Ivan Yuvachev was a member in a revolutionary organisation against the autocratic system in the Soviet Union and unfortunately this act took his freedom – he was ostracised on island Sakhalin. Daniil’s younger sister died when she reached her fourth year due to a serious illness, whose remedy was too expensive for the poor family. These tragedies have affected Daniil’s life deeply; it is suggested that his pseudonym was related to them, regarding that Kharms was a game of the words “harm” and “charm” mixed. It can be suggested that the name Kharms resembles both the essences of his life and his works – despite the darkness and the brutality in his life and in his fictional stories, there was always a sparkle of peculiar charm, which often presented the pessimistic in an optimistic light. Kharms was an active writer during the 1920s and the 1930s of the twentieth century in Russia, where the despotic regime of Stalin reflected significantly on the life of the ordinary person. The Soviet Union was at the edge of World War II, therefore during this period people were struggling to gain everyday supplies in order to survive. The following historical context will serve as an important part of understanding Kharms’ life and the possible reason behind his inspiration for writing in the absurdist genre. According to Sheila Fitzpatrick’s research on the daily life in 1930s Soviet Russia, during this period Kharms’ home country was a dangerous and lawless place. The constant political propaganda that “The party is always right” contrasted with the realistic conditions that the Russian people had to deal with every day. Almost every act of disobedience could be contrary to the demands of the authority. Dangerous acts such as “robberies, murders, drunken fights and random attacks on passerby were common” during the Soviet crisis in the 30s. The lack of food, clothes and goods was a main problem: “people no longer talked about “buying” something, but about “getting hold of it”. The lines for bread and other essentials were so long that one had to wait hours until he could buy something. Kharms represents all of these problematic themes of the crisis in many of his short stories such as Masha Found a Mushroom, Mashkin Killed Koshkin, The Beginning of a Wonderful, Summer Day, et cetera. The author himself was constantly struggling with the misery of his poor life, despite his erudition and his fluency in three different languages. He wrote in his journal:

It is sure that all of my life will pass in a horrifying poverty and I will live ordinary only when I am at the safety of my home, perhaps afterwards, as well, if I reach my 40s.

This serves as a proof for his both pessimistic and realistic analysis of the time period. In 1928 Kharms was one of the founders of the avant-garde literature organisation, called Oberiu, or Union of Real Art where he began to develop his unique understanding of absurdism. He focused on building a peculiar form of avant-garde writing; an art that deviated from realism and strived away from any logic and practical explanations of the real world. The freedom that Oberiu gave him made possible the creation of the play Elizaveta Bam, which was performed only once on stage before a negative critique came out calling it: “a cynical non-sense that no one understood”.

After the failure of his theatre of absurdity, Kharms lost his mother and all the possible career projects that he could take part in. This forced him to start writing poetry for children, however one of his poems – Out of a house walked a man was considered as “hostile towards the socialistic traditional family and the socialist revolutionary literature” and after this critique he struggled to find publishers of his poems. In 1930 Oberiu was claimed to be a group with “literature hooligans”, therefore this ended its public performances. This was followed by the arrest of a few of its members in 1931 due to an accusation of participating in an anti-Soviet illegal group of writers, one of which was Kharms himself. It can be suggested that after the critiques of Kharms’ works, he became suspicious in the eyes of the strict authority – Fitzpatrick states that once one was acclaimed to be hostile against the system, he could hardly regain back a normal social status. These people were forced to become outlaws, apropos, “even social meetings between them were likely to be interpreted as “anti-Soviet discussions […]” and this used to result in lower or higher punishments such as different forms of death sentence. The outcome for Kharms was an exile for three years and a divorce with his first wife, Ester. The sentence resulted in one of his most productive periods when he came up with the ideas from his later collection of short stories called Cases.

When his exile ended, he returned to St. Petersburg and his life continued miserably – he was at the edge of starvation with his new wife. In 1939 World War II began, and the orders were clear – every man over 14 must join the military forces. Kharms started publishing psychiatry books and simulated schizophrenia in order to avoid serving in the army. This act cost him losing all of the support by the publishing houses that he ever had and left him to a second period of chronicle starvation and hopelessness. Two years later he met with Antonia Oranzhereeva, a journalist, to whom he shared his opinion about serving in the Soviet military forces. Unfortunately, she appeared to be an agent from the NKVD (The People’s Commissariat for Internal Events). Later, when Kharms had to explain himself in front of an inspector, he fearlessly shared with him the same words: 

If they give me a mobilization order, I will strike my fist into the face of the commander. Better for them to shoot me, because I will not put on a uniform and I will not serve the Soviet army – I simply do not wish to be such crap. […] If they give me a machine-gun […] I would shoot not the Germans, but at them. […] For me it is better to live with the Germans in the concentration camps than in the conditions of the Soviet authority.

After these words, his execution was certain, however he simulated insanity again and the investigators decided to send him to the psychiatric ward called Kresty prison. He died there, alone, in 1942.

Twenty years later, his sister Elizaveta requested permission for a justification of her brother’s case and the results were positive – Kharms was exonerated and the censorship of his works were lifted. On the one hand, it can be stated that it is surprising how Kharms predicted his life accurately judging by the foregoing note from his journal – he was extremely poor; he was the most productive when isolated and he died young. On the other hand, Kharms’ fate was common during the crisis and the war in Russia. Although his death was ordinary, Kharms himself was an extraordinary phenomenon – not only as a person, but as a writer, as well. The following paragraph will focus on his works and on the techniques he uses in order to prove the innovative approach of Kharms, which surpasses the time it was written in.

In Latin, the term “absurd” forms from the construct ab-surdus, with the adjective surdus, which means “deaf” or “mute”. This leads to the most trivial etymological explanation of the noun – “which is unheard of (…)”, apropos something that no one has ever heard of. It can be stated that this description implies to Daniil Kharms himself – he was not known among his contemporaries and few people liked and appreciated his original texts.

Neil Cornwell, a renowned professor of Russian and Comparative Literature with multiple contributions to the academic field, explains one of the reasons for the uniqueness of Kharms’ works to be his “constant adoption, at various levels, of what may be terms a poetics of extremism”. This so-called Kharms extremism lies within his perpetual need to undermine his own stories or to build them with a peculiar self-destruction mechanism. This can be explained better with an example of one of his miniatures – Meeting:

So, one day a man went to work and while going there he met another man, who had bought bread and was just minding his own business. That is all actually.

It can be suggested that the terseness of this story resonates within its simplicity. Mark Lipovetsky (an acclaimed literary critic specialised in Russian forms of art) suggests that Kharms’ collection Cases is the first example in the Russian literature for Roland Barthes’s approach of ‘writing in the degree zero’, apropos “a deconstruction of writing by means of writing”. Cornwell calls Kharms “the black miniaturist” and compares his approach to Beckett’s ‘end of Story’ model, which extends in the minimalistic and infantile way of telling a story. The author’s extremism results in decomposing his texts or building them just so he could belittle their message if they had any. As an example of that can serve one of his famous short stories The Plummeting Old Women: 

Excessive curiosity made one old woman fall out of a window, plummet to the ground and break into pieces. Another old woman poked her head out of a window to look at the one who had broken into pieces, but excessive curiosity made her too fall out of the window, plummet to the ground and break into pieces. Then a third woman fell out of a window, then a fourth, then a fifth. When a sixth old woman fell out, I felt I’d had enough of watching them and went off to the Maltsev Market where I heard that a blind man had been given a knitted scarf. 

This miniature represents Kharmisian extremism in a peculiar and accurate way. The whole story is not built up around a plot, all of the characters in it do not have any character arc and there is no moral in it – it is just a cold and apathetic description of the narrator. Indeed, this carelessness lies within the charm of Kharms’ stories and within the essence of the absurdism. In the introduction the description of this term stated that the absurdist world is a place without any order or purpose. It just exists – so do the falling women who are part of it. In his research Cornwell deliberately quotes Juri Lotman:

The essence of plot lies in selecting the events, which are the discrete units of plot, then giving them meaning and a temporal or causal or some other ordering.

Then adds by himself: “The second half of this prescription is exactly what Kharms typically does not give us.”. Therefore, Kharms opposes the rich diversity and complex techniques of fiction with his minimalistic text, where the reader is provided only with a skeletal structure of the story and usually this lasts until the end.  However, not all Kharms’ stories are so simple – it can be suggested that some of them do have morals, although they are represented under the form of a cold statement. For example, the miniature Cases: 

Once Orlov ate too much crushed peas and died. When Krilov understood about this, he died, as well. Spiridonov died alone. Spiridonov’s wife fell from the cupboard and also died. Spiridonov’s kids drowned in the lake. Spiridonov’s grandma took to drinking and started begging. […] And Kruglov drew a lady with a whip in her hands and lost his mind. […] Reasonable people, but they cannot find their way in life. 

It can be stated that this miniature’s moral reflects on the importance of one’s constant will for improvement - disasters and unfortunate events happen in every single second everywhere around the world and if one does not find his way in life he might end as one of the characters in the miniature. This might be one of the possible interpretations of Kharms’ intentions when he created the text. Another one might lay within personal reasons. He had a life full of disappointments, he lived during a crisis and a war in a totalitarian country. It can be suggested that the author did not aim to use the surrealistic approach of absurdism in order to create escapism. By adding surrealistic elements to his stories, Kharms hyperbolizes the true horrors of the suffocating Leningrad’s atmosphere to such an extent that they become ridiculous. Cornwell comments on this the following:

Kharms turns a starkly surgical glance both on the extraordinary world of Stalin’s Russia and on representation itself – past and present – in storytelling and other artistic forms.

It can be suggested that Kharms’ originality was in a contradiction with one of the main ideas of the USSR – the strive of backwardness. The authorities tried to avoid any change and to regain their old glory by turning backwards in the traditional models and examples. Fitzpatrick’s research states that the word backwardness: “stood for everything that belonged to old Russia and needed to be changed in the name of progress and culture.”

It seems that Kharms could not stand the act of praise to the highly respected authors such as Pushkin and Gogol. The Soviet authority put them on a pedestal, and they used to be a model and an example for every author back at this time. It might be clear until this part of the essay, that Kharms was against everything ordinary and cliché, so it can be suggested that perhaps this is the reason why he mocked these authors in some of his works. For example Anecdotes from Pushkin’s life tells non-realistic facts and events that used to happen to Pushkin when he was young:

Pushkin loved to throw stones at himself. […] Pushkin had four sons – and all of them were idiots. One of them could not even stand on a chair and he always kept falling from it. Pushkin also couldn’t sit on a chair very well.

Any kind of mockery about praised figures was prohibited back in the 1930s in USSR, however Kharms not only was brave enough (or mad?) to write parodies, he also represented these men through the prism of a cynical and cruel humor, which hundred years later is still relevant.

As a final touch to this analysis an important matter about Kharms’ works should be examined properly. The repetition of Kharms’s peculiar fixations: with falling, accidents, randomness, sudden death, victimisation, and nearly all types of seemingly senseless violence. It can be added that there is not almost any distinction between the narratorial and the authorial position. One can find in his journal thoughts just as cynical and violent as the content of his stories: 

I don’t like children, old men, old women, and the reasonably middle aged. To poison children, that would be cruel. But, hell, something needs to be done with them! . . . I respect only young, healthy and gorgeous women. The remaining representatives of the human race I regard suspiciously. 

It can be stated that all of the unpleasant events in his life – from the passing of his young sister until his own terrible death sentence in the psychiatric ward, made Kharms a peculiar misanthrope or at least a desperate person. It can be suggested that he was obsessed with the issue of falling. The short story The Falling shows two perspectives of different women, who observe two bodies falling from a building. At the end, a crowd has gathered and cheerfully waits for the bodies to hit the ground. The last sentence states:

In the same way, sometimes when we fall from the heights we have touched, we hit the gloomy cage of our future.

This can be related to Kharms’ notes:

When falling into filth, there is only one thing for a man to do: just fall, without looking around. The important thing is just to do this with style and energy.

Regarding the unclear difference between the author and the narrator it can be stated that probably Kharms’ expressed his dissatisfaction, despair and disappointment through his writing. The bitter way in which he used to see the world has preserved through the prism of absurdism and gives to the contemporary readers a surrealistic perspective of St. Petersburg’s hardest times. As Cornwell concludes in his analysis: “In times of extremity, it is the times themselves that may seem more absurd than any absurd artistic invention.”

In conclusion, Daniil Kharms's unique approach to absurdist literature, shaped by his tragic and oppressive experiences in 1930s Soviet Russia, has left a lasting impact on literary history. His fixation on themes of randomness, senseless violence, and sudden death poignantly reflects the chaos of his time. Despite initial obscurity and censorship, Kharms's work has gained recognition for its innovative and minimalist narrative style. His stories, characterized by dark humor and a surreal portrayal of reality, challenge conventional storytelling and provide a powerful critique of oppressive societal structures. Ultimately, Kharms's legacy endures as a testament to the resilience of creativity in the face of adversity.

Works cited:

Cornwell, Neil. The Absurd in Literature, Manchester University Press, 2006.

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Everyday Stalinism : Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Kharms, Daniil. The Plummeting Old Women, The Liliput Press, 1989.

Oxford Dictionary of English: Second Edition. Oxford University Press, 2010.

Хармс, Даниил. Избрани съчинения. Факел експрес, 2014.