SUMMARY:

In this essay, Julia Vaingurt – the author of the book Soft Matter: The Poetics of Weakness in Late Soviet Socialism (2025) discussed in the forum “The Power of Soft Matter” – responds to the forum participants. Vaingurt clarifies her conceptualization of a poetics of weakness as a deliberate strategy and performance rather than an inherent condition or lack of ability. She argues that choosing weakness functions as an ethical intervention against dominant cultural rhetorics of mastery and force, offering instead a model grounded in receptivity, restraint, and self-questioning. By examining late Soviet literature and aesthetics, Vaingurt defends her framework against critiques regarding gender representation and potential victimization, asserting that abstaining from power creates space for alternative affiliations.