Sociology of the Transcendental Delirium World

Abstract

Analyzes the individual empire relationship in the USSR, treating Venedikt Yerofeyev's Moscow Pietushki as a superb instantiation of Soviet interaction rituals. The author rejects the Homo sovieticus model, the orthodox implementation of which leads to a recognition of individuals as puppets of the system. Analysis, inspired by Goffman's & Collins's findings, shows the social mechanisms that make possible the construction of a temporary world of transcendental delirium, located on the borderline of system reality. The constitution & duration of this anti-utopia system inside society reveal the relative autonomy of Soviet social actors: their conduct in this world is conditioned mainly by the availability of alcohol & the capability to play the 'parlor game.' Such analysis, which surveys the universal logic of interaction rituals, facilitates a reasonable comparison of the practices of Soviet actors with the practices of actors located on the 'friendly' peripheries of the system, & with the relevancy systems & the actions of the CEE & the Western bourgeoisie.