Published February 2023
Out of Focus: Russia at the Margins
Catriona Kelly
Selected Essays 8
- ‘For a collection of scholarly pieces, Out of Focus is a very personal project. Catriona Kelly presents a view of Russian culture that deliberately eschews Big History and looks instead at 'unconsidered trifles' and the experiences of marginal groups 'beyond the focus of Russian history as conventionally practised'.’ — Wendy Slater, Times Literary Supplement 16 June 2023
- ‘Kelly’s pivot towards documenting the tiny details, daily intrigues, and cultural stereotypes dominant among both the Russian elites and ordinary people amounts to a genuinely new and illuminating view on Russian history. In this book she observes, not the tip of the historical iceberg, but the section lurking under the surface.’ — Valery Vyugin, Modern Language Review 119.2, 2024, 292-94 (full text online)