The Negro Boy Between the “Dark Forest” and the “Faraway Kingdom”: The USA / Foreign Lands and the USSR in Soviet Children’s Plays, 1920–1930s
- Issue:
- Received: 14 Mar. 2026
- Approved after reviewing: 29 Apr. 2026
- Date of publication: 25 Jun. 2026
- УДК / UDK: 821.111(73).0+821.161.1Р.0
- Publication Type: Research Article
- DOI:
- EDN:
- Abstract:
The article analyzes a number of popular performances staged in Soviet youth theaters and puppet theaters in the 1920s and 1930s: Little Black Tom by Y. Gausch and B. Pavlovsky, Sambo by Y. Gausch, Jim and Dollar by A. Globa, The Negro Boy and the Monkey by N. Satz and S. Rozanov with music by L. Polovinkin, Petrushka the Foreigner by S. Marshak. The structure of these children’s productions is examined using V. Propp’s methodology and reveals the hybridity of the initiation meta-plot and the current tasks and contemporary agenda imposed on children’s theatre. The focus is on the motif of foreignness in the protagonist’s fate: in Propp’s terminology, USA and other foreign states in Soviet children’s plays invariably turn out to be the Dark Forest, and the USSR — the Faraway Kingdom.
- Keywords: theatre for children, puppet theatre, image of the USA in Soviet literature and culture, reception, Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale (1928), Negro Tom, Little Black Sambo, Natalia Sats, Andrei Globa, Jim and Dollar, Sergei Obraztsov
- For citation:
Kleiman, Yulia. “The Negro Boy between the ‘Dark Forest’ and the ‘Faraway Kingdom’: The USA / Foreign Lands and the USSR in Soviet Children’s Plays, 1920–1930s.” Literature of the Americas, no. 20 (2026): 180–201. https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2026-20-180-201
- References:
Abasheva 2013 — Abasheva, Marina. “Semiotika devich’ei iniciacii: ot institutskoi prozy k sovetskoi detskoi povesti” [“Semiotics of Maidenhood Initiation: From Institute Fiction to the Soviet Children’s Story”]. In “Ubit’ Charskuiu...”: Paradoksy sovetskoi literatury dlia detei. 1920–30 gg [“Killing Charskaya...”: Paradoxes of Soviet Children’s Literature. 1920–1930s]. St. Petersburg: Aleteia Publ., 2013. (In Russ.)
Bogdanov 2014 — Bogdanov, Konstantin A. “Negry v SSSR. Etnografia mnimoi diaspory” [“Black People in the USSR: Ethnography of an Imaginary Diaspora”]. Antropologicheskij forum, no. 22 (2014): 103–142. (In Russ.)
Goldovskij 2007 — Goldovskii, Boris. Istoria dramaturgii teatra kukol [The History of Drama in Puppet Theatre]. Moscow: Dizain Haus Publ., 2007 (In Russ.)
Klejman 2022 — Klejman, Yulia A. “‘Bobry vsekh stran, ob”edinyajtes’!’: Leonid Makar’ev i Federal’nyi teatral’nyi proekt dlia detei” [“‘Beavers of the World,Unite!’: Leonid Makaryev and Federal Theatre Project for Children”]. Rossica, no. 2 (2022): 133–146. (In Russ.)
Lapina 2022 — Lapina, Galina V. Amerikancy v Moskve: 1930–1940 [The Americans in Moscow: 1930–1940]. Moscow: Litfakt Publ., 2022. (In Russ.)
Naprienko 2017 — Naprienko, Anastasia V. “Mess-Mend Marietty Shaginyan kak ‘kinematograficheskii roman’” [“Marietta Shaginyan’s Mess-Mend as a ‘Cinematic Novel’”]. Vestnik Samarskogo universiteta. Istoriya, pedagogika, filologiya 1, no. 2 (2017): 106–110. (In Russ.)
Sorokina 2018 — Sorokina, Svetlana P. “Petrushka v detskom teatre pervogo poslerevolyucionnogo desyatiletia (dve p’esy S.Ya. Marshaka)” [“Petrushka in the Theatre for Children in the First Ten Years after the October Revolution (Two Plays by S.Ya. Marshak)”]. Studia Litterarum 3, no. 3 (2018): 254–277. (In Russ.)
Vogler 2022 — Vogler, Krisrtofer. Puteshestvie pisatelia. Mifologicheskie struktury v literature i kino [The Writer’s Journey: Mythological Structures in Literature and Cinema]. Moscow: Al’pina non-fikshn Publ., 2022. (In Russ.)
