www.cambridge.org/9780521606523
Caryl Emerson. The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008, 306pp.
Series: Cambridge Introductions to Literature
Russian literature arrived late on the European scene. Within several
generations, its great novelists had shocked - and then conquered - the
world. In this introduction to the rich and vibrant Russian tradition,
Caryl Emerson weaves a narrative of recurring themes and fascinations
across several centuries. Beginning with traditional Russian narratives
(saints' lives, folk tales, epic and rogue narratives), the book moves
through literary history chronologically and thematically, juxtaposing
literary texts from each major period. Detailed attention is given to
canonical writers including Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy,
Chekhov, Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn, as well as to some current
bestsellers from the post-Communist period. Fully accessible to students
and readers with no knowledge of Russian, the volume includes a glossary
and pronunciation guide of key Russian terms as well as a list of useful
secondary works. The book will be of great interest to students of
Russian as well as of comparative literature.
Contents
Preface;
1. Critical models, committed readers, and three Russian ideas;
2. Heroes and their plots;
3. Traditional narratives;
4. Western eyes on Russian realities: the eighteenth century;
5. The astonishing nineteenth century: Romanticisms;
6. Realisms: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov;
7. Symbolist and modernist world-building: three cities, three novels,
and the devil;
8. The Stalin years: socialist realism, anti-Fascist fairy tales,
wilderness;
9. Coming to terms and seeking other terms: from the First Thaw (1956)
to the end of the millennium;
Postscript: the Russian word in a fluid world;
Notes; Pronunciations and definitions of Russian words, proper names,
and place names occurring in the text (with first occurrence noted);
The Russian literary canon in English;
Guide to further reading.
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