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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 will uses the figure of Pushkin, 'the Russian Shakespeare' as a recurring example as his work influenced every Russian writer who came after hime, 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.
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"It is written in a lively and stimulating manner...and displays a range to which few of Dr. Kelly's peers in the field of Russian scholarship are equal."--Dr. Philip Cavendish
About the Author
Catriona Kelly is a Fellow of New College, Oxford, and the author of A History of Russian Women's Writing and co-editor of Russian Cultural Studies, both published by OUP.
First Sentence
In 1925, the Anglo-Russian literary critic D. S. Mirsky began Modern Russian Literature, a pioneering 'very short' introduction published by Oxford University Press, by referring to Pushkin. Read the first page
I was looking forward to improving my knowledge and understanding of a period of Russian writing that I have always loved. I thought that this short introduction would give me a few insights into the minds of writers such as Dostoevsky, Lermentov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Gogol and Chekhov and the contexts of their famous works. Sadly after only a few pages in it becomes obvious that it only focuses on Pushkin and the influence that his work had on Russian writing. It does mention other writers but only in relation to Pushkin and to back up the argument for his importance as the father of Russian literature. I am not doubting this claim but it is misleading to call this book an Introduction to Russian literature when it focuses so narrowly on Pushkin's influence and not the other writers in there own right.
'Short' it may be. An 'introduction' it is not. This is written by someone who is frightfully clever, with a particular point of view in mind and a particular purpose for sharing it (to attack the so-called Pushkin myth in Russian literature). It's not for the casual reader or the beginner. It's difficult, and assumes a fair bit of knowledge, patience and understanding. Be warned. Prof Kelly knows all that there is to know about Russian literature, and isn't afriad of showing it.
I won't for a moment dispute Professor Kelly's vast knowledge of her subject. I had naively hoped that this book would not only educate me, but fill me with the enthusiasm to read some of the authors described. I gave up in utter frustration less than a quarter way through.
Sadly, the writing skills of the Russians have not found their way into the author's style. This is of the (sadly, not yet dead) school that confuses "intellectual" with "pretentious" and "challenging writing" with "needlessly verbose and convoluted writing": why use straightforward language and vocabulary when we can show how clever we are with complex forms and obscure words?
"Pious sentiments about the untranslatability of Pushkin seem to be a genre requirement in every introduction to the writer: they are as true, but also as false, as platitudes about poetry getting lost in translation", opines the learned lady on page nine. WHAT?
Does she mean "Lots of reviewers think Pushkin doesn't translate well, but that is not necessarily true"? Then why not just say so? There's 150 pages full of these contestants for Private Eye's "Pseud's Corner". No, thank you.
I'm sure that there is a mountain of brilliant Russian literature to be read and enjoyed. Don't let this turgid and self-indulgent little book put you off it.
