‘The most Martian of Martianesses’: Zhanna Aguzarova, (post-)Soviet rock ‘n’ roll, and the musico-linguistic creation of the ‘outside’

Abstract

AbstractThis article focuses on the Soviet/post-Soviet singer Zhanna Aguzarova, as both frontwoman for the seminal Russian rock ‘n’ roll bandBravoand as a solo artist. Contextualising her musical output within the singer's frequent allusions to and performances of extraterrestrialism, and drawing upon works of Kristeva and Vygotskii, I contend that Aguzarova's voice and frequent use of vocables contributed to a creation of a performative space ‘outside’ of and in contradistinction to the linguistically over-determined ‘official’ Soviet space. In conclusion, however, I problematise the creation of a simple binary, showing how Aguzarova's musical Russianness, as well as her emigration from and return to Russia, constitute a type of ‘rooted Otherness’.