Mark Lipovetsky takes the reader on a critical tour of twentieth-century Russian literature to develop a specific understanding of Russian postmodernism (Aksyonov, Bitov, Erofeev, Pietsukh, Popov, Sokolov, Tolstaya). In the process he takes on some of the central issues of the critical debate and draws on both Bakhtinian and chaos theory to develop a conception of postmodern poetics as a dialogue with chaos. Lipovetsky concludes by placing Russian literature in the context of this enriched postmodernism. An appendix with extensive bibliographical notes on contemporary Russian writers and literary theorists complements the study. --First comprehensive study of Russian postmodernism --Develops original contributions to postmodernist theory --Provides detailed analysis of the most representative texts of Russian postmodernism --Places Russian postmodernism in the context of European and North and Latin American postmodernism --Includes an appendix of biographical and bibliographic information on contemporary Russian writers.