ABSTRACT
The strategy of stylistic resistance makes it possible to create a distinct alternative cultural and discursive space, while avoiding the pitfalls of a reflective, mimetic repetition of the hegemonic language of power. But at the same time the logic of this form of protest rather rapidly confronts intrinsic limits of development. The absence of an articulated political programme and a social-economic agenda renders this form of protest relatively harmless for the powers. This chapter focuses on stylistic creativity, which became not only a means for the articulation of political protest, but its very content, a central dimension of individual and collective self-identification for the movement's participants. It also focuses on the hallowed Russian tradition of imagining creative, cultural activity that becomes a symbol of ethical and civic superiority as a worthy opponent to politics as embodied by state power.
