Russian Literature (Very Short Introductions)

Description:
This book is intended to capture the interest of anyone who has been attracted to Russian culture through the greats of Russian literature, either through the texts themselves, or encountering them in the cinema, or opera. Rather than a conventional chronology of Russian literature, the book will explore the place and importance of literature of all sorts in Russian culture. How and when did a Russian national literature come into being? What shaped its creation? How have the Russians regarded their literary language? The book uses the figure of Pushkin, 'the Russian Shakespeare' as a recurring example, as his work influenced every Russian writer who came after him, whether poets or novelists. It will look at such questions as why Russian writers are venerated, how they've been interpreted inside Russia and beyond, and the influences of such things as the folk tale tradition, orthodox religion, and the West.

Table of Contents:
PREFACE; 1. Testament; 2. 'I Have Raised Myself a Monument': Writers Memorials, Writer Cults; 3. 'Tidings of Me Will Go Out over All Great Rus': Pushkin and the Russian Literary Canon; 4. 'I Shall be Famous as long as Another Poet Lives'; 5. 'Awakening Noble Feelings with My Lyre': Russian Writers as 'Masters of Minds'; 6. 'And don't Dispute with Fools': Male and Female Literary Roles from the Salon to the Soyuz pisatele (Union of Writers); 7. 'Every Tribe and Every Tongue Shall Name Me': Russian Literature and 'Prinitive Culture'; 8. 'O Muse, be Obedient to the Command of God': Writing and the Spiritual and Material Worlds; LIST OF FURTHER READING