Emily Van Buskirk
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691166797
- eISBN:
- 9781400873777
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166797.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
The Russian writer Lydia Ginzburg (1902–90) is best known for her Notes from the Leningrad Blockade and for influential critical studies, such as On Psychological Prose, investigating the problem of ...
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The Russian writer Lydia Ginzburg (1902–90) is best known for her Notes from the Leningrad Blockade and for influential critical studies, such as On Psychological Prose, investigating the problem of literary character in French and Russian novels and memoirs. Yet she viewed her most vital work to be the extensive prose fragments, composed for the desk drawer, in which she analyzed herself and other members of the Russian intelligentsia through seven traumatic decades of Soviet history. This book, the first full-length English-language study of the writer, presents Ginzburg as a figure of previously unrecognized innovation and importance in the literary landscape of the twentieth century. Based on a decade's work in Ginzburg's archives, the book discusses previously unknown manuscripts and uncovers a wealth of new information about the author's life, focusing on Ginzburg's quest for a new kind of writing adequate to her times. The book provides examples of universal experiences—frustrated love, professional failures, remorse, aging—and explores the modern fragmentation of identity in the context of war, terror, and an oppressive state. Searching for a new concept of the self, and deeming the psychological novel (a beloved academic specialty) inadequate to express this concept, Ginzburg turned to fragmentary narratives that blur the lines between history, autobiography, and fiction. This full account of Ginzburg's writing career in many genres and emotional registers enables us not only to rethink the experience of Soviet intellectuals, but to arrive at a new understanding of writing and witnessing during a horrific century.Less
The Russian writer Lydia Ginzburg (1902–90) is best known for her Notes from the Leningrad Blockade and for influential critical studies, such as On Psychological Prose, investigating the problem of literary character in French and Russian novels and memoirs. Yet she viewed her most vital work to be the extensive prose fragments, composed for the desk drawer, in which she analyzed herself and other members of the Russian intelligentsia through seven traumatic decades of Soviet history. This book, the first full-length English-language study of the writer, presents Ginzburg as a figure of previously unrecognized innovation and importance in the literary landscape of the twentieth century. Based on a decade's work in Ginzburg's archives, the book discusses previously unknown manuscripts and uncovers a wealth of new information about the author's life, focusing on Ginzburg's quest for a new kind of writing adequate to her times. The book provides examples of universal experiences—frustrated love, professional failures, remorse, aging—and explores the modern fragmentation of identity in the context of war, terror, and an oppressive state. Searching for a new concept of the self, and deeming the psychological novel (a beloved academic specialty) inadequate to express this concept, Ginzburg turned to fragmentary narratives that blur the lines between history, autobiography, and fiction. This full account of Ginzburg's writing career in many genres and emotional registers enables us not only to rethink the experience of Soviet intellectuals, but to arrive at a new understanding of writing and witnessing during a horrific century.
Donna Tussing Orwin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801448980
- eISBN:
- 9780801465895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801448980.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This introductory chapter provides a reading of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace from different perspectives. It first views the novel as “literature”, describing War and Peace as both the quintessential ...
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This introductory chapter provides a reading of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace from different perspectives. It first views the novel as “literature”, describing War and Peace as both the quintessential Russian novel and perhaps its greatest example. In “A Few Words about the Book War and Peace” (1868) Tolstoy attributes to the “author” the determining role in War and Peace. He tells readers that it can be understood only as “that which the author wanted to and could express in the form in which it is expressed.” The chapter then reads the novel as “history,” focusing on how Tolstoy sought to be true to the historical record available to him. It ends by viewing War and Peace in Tolstoy's own worldview along with a brief discussion of the different theories of war and history in the novel.Less
This introductory chapter provides a reading of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace from different perspectives. It first views the novel as “literature”, describing War and Peace as both the quintessential Russian novel and perhaps its greatest example. In “A Few Words about the Book War and Peace” (1868) Tolstoy attributes to the “author” the determining role in War and Peace. He tells readers that it can be understood only as “that which the author wanted to and could express in the form in which it is expressed.” The chapter then reads the novel as “history,” focusing on how Tolstoy sought to be true to the historical record available to him. It ends by viewing War and Peace in Tolstoy's own worldview along with a brief discussion of the different theories of war and history in the novel.
Andrew Kahn, Mark Lipovetsky, Irina Reyfman, and Stephanie Sandler
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199663941
- eISBN:
- 9780191770463
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199663941.003.0025
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter charts the growing appreciation among writers and readers of prose fiction—the genre not valued by the educated eighteenth-century reader. It explores the emergence and growing ...
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This chapter charts the growing appreciation among writers and readers of prose fiction—the genre not valued by the educated eighteenth-century reader. It explores the emergence and growing popularity of historical prose, the romantic tale, and the society tale. The chapter pays particular attention to the ongoing delay in the rise of the novel. It considers the formal and thematic dimensions of the novel, treating questions of aesthetics and movements such as techniques of mimesis, the relation of realism to the movement known as Realism, and the novel’s close attention to social class and political issues Russian.Less
This chapter charts the growing appreciation among writers and readers of prose fiction—the genre not valued by the educated eighteenth-century reader. It explores the emergence and growing popularity of historical prose, the romantic tale, and the society tale. The chapter pays particular attention to the ongoing delay in the rise of the novel. It considers the formal and thematic dimensions of the novel, treating questions of aesthetics and movements such as techniques of mimesis, the relation of realism to the movement known as Realism, and the novel’s close attention to social class and political issues Russian.
