The Question of Dissidence
Part 1 From the "Testimony view" to the "dissident" conception The "dissident" conception versus "open" meaning The culture of dissidence Does the "dissident" conception trivialise Shostakovich? The dissident experience Part 2 Anti-revisionism versus the "dissident" conception Did the Soviets know that Shostakovich was a dissident? The concept of "secret dissidence" Dissident or intelligent? Anti-revisionism as anti-contextualism Part 3 Rejecting the dissident conception: simple denial Rejecting the dissident conception: specific works Dissidence or "bearing witness"? Rejecting the dissident conception: misrepresentation "Unreliable" evidence -- anti-revisionism attacks witnesses Part 4 Rejecting the dissident conception: motives Shostakovich in tears Why did Shostakovich weep? Introspection and the impact of modernity Beyond introspection: the communal response Part 5 "Trivial specificity" Alternatives to the dissident conception The hagiographical accusation