Russian Literature
Cultural History of Literature
For most English-speaking readers, Russian literature consists of a
small number of individual writers - nineteenth-century masters
such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev - or a few well-known
works - Chekhov's plays, Brodsky's poems, and perhaps Master and
Margarita and Doctor Zhivago from the twentieth century.
The medieval period, as well as the brilliant tradition of Russian
lyric poetry from the eighteenth century to the present, are almost
completely terra incognita, as are the complex prose
experiments of Nikolai Gogol, Nikolai Leskov, Andrei Belyi, and
Andrei Platonov. Furthermore, those writers who have made an impact
are generally known outside of the contexts in which they wrote and
in which their work has been received.
In this engaging book, Andrew Baruch Wachtel and Ilya Vinitsky
provide a comprehensive, conceptually challenging history of
Russian literature, including prose, poetry and drama. Each of the
ten chapters deals with a bounded time period from medieval Russia
to the present. In a number of cases, chapters overlap
chronologically, thereby allowing a given period to be seen in more
than one context. To tell the story of each period, the authors
provide an introductory essay touching on the highpoints of its
development and then concentrate on one biography, one literary or
cultural event, and one literary work, which serve as prisms
through which the main outlines of a given period?s development can
be discerned. Although the focus is on literature, individual
works, lives and events are placed in broad historical context as
well as in the framework of parallel developments in Russian art
and music.
Chronology vii
Introduction: Labyrinth of Links: Russian Literature and its
Cultural Contexts 1
1 The Origins: Russian Medieval Culture 7
2 The Spirit of Peter: Russian Culture in the Eighteenth Century
31
3 The Spirit of Poetry: Russian Culture in the Age of Alexander
I (1801-25) 57
4 The Russian Idea: The Quest for National Identity in
Nineteenth-Century Russian Culture 89
5 Russian Psychology: The Quest for Personal Identity in
Nineteenth-Century Russian Culture 125
6 Life as Theatre: Russian Modernism 157
7 The Art of the Future: The Russian Avant-Garde 182
8 The Future as Present: Soviet Culture 204
9 After the Future: Russian Thaw Culture 233
10 Instead of the Apocalypse: Russian Culture Today 261
Conclusion: Whither Russian Literature 285
Notes 294
Bibliography 302
Index 308
resources ... providing a thorough, engaging overview of
Russian literature from its beginnings to the present."
Slavic and East European Journal
"The authors accomplish a rare tour de force: in remarkably
few pages readers are exposed to the entire sweep of Russian
literary culture, not as a summary but as an intellectual
commentary on a great world literature. A terrific book for
students and general readers alike."
Jeffrey Brooks, Johns Hopkins University
"An adventurous and provocative meditation on Russian literary
history that throws unexpected new light on apparently familiar
figures, as well as introducing new writers, new connections, and a
new sense of context. Wachtel and Vinitsky's account of
Russian literature gives proper emphasis to the pre-Petrine era and
the eighteenth century, as well as the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, but is much more than a standard potted history. They
are able to emphasise large themes, such as the role of literature
in the rise of nationalism, and at the same time to search out
striking and offbeat examples from sources such as unpublished
memoirs. Their book is one of the most original and stimulating
accounts of the subject to appear in any language."
Catriona Kelly, New College, Oxford
"To transmit the evolving spirit of a culture takes as much
magic as chronology, and this mesmerizing volume delivers the best
of all worlds. At flashpoints over a thousand years, select
persons, artworks, and events are triangulated into miniature
stories, each alive with human faces at thrilling creative
risk."
Caryl Emerson, Princeton University
"This readable, challenging book fills a serious gap in our
studies of Russian literature: it covers the entire history of
writing on Russian soil and it does so as proper history, with well
argued theses about the development of this literature in cultural
context, taking culture in both aesthetic and anthropological
senses of the word. Fresh, persuasive readings illuminate each of
the dozen chapters."
William Mills Todd, Harvard College
in Humanities at Northwestern University.
Ilya Vinitsky is Assistant Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania.