SUMMARY:

Anastasia de La Fortelle criticizes Dina Khapaeva’s biographical method in analyzing the novels by Vladimir Sharov (1952–2018) in her book, Putin’s Dark Ages: Political Neomedievalism and Re-Stalinization in Russia (2024). De La Fortelle argues that Khapaeva manipulates primary sources and relies on speculative interpretations by ascribing intentions to the deceased writer based on superficial biographical details. She posits that Khapaeva equates Sharov’s attempt to understand Soviet terror with a politically motivated justification of Stalinism, and in general interprets literary texts as direct equivalents of their authors’ personal beliefs and ideas, which is a methodological fallacy that literary scholars should avoid.