Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Cold War Icon, Gulag Author, Russian Nationalist?

ISBN-13: 9783838205892 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 308 str.

Elisa Kriza;Andrei Rogatchevski

Opis

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was one of the Cold War's most iconic writers. This book offers an in-depth analysis of his reception in the US, UK, and Germany before and after 1991. Elisa Kriza skilfully explores how Solzhenitsyn's work can be understood with the paradigm of witness literature and uncovers the dynamics behind the politicised reception of his writing. From the mid-1980s onwards, Solzhenitsyn's popularity dwindled -- was this for ideological reasons? What about the rumours linking him with Russian nationalism? This study does not shy away from stretching beyond anti-communism and touching more contentious subjects -- such as anti-feminism, anti-Semitism, and revisionism -- in Solzhenitsyn's work and reception. Bringing Solzhenitsyn back from his 'critical exile' and redefining his work as memory culture, Kriza's book is a crucial scholarly intervention, unveiling the mechanism that can transform a controversial figure into a moral icon.

Recenzje

"Kriza gives an exhaustive account of the stages and odd steps this strange 'dance' Western intellectuals were forced to perform with Solzhenitsyn after they progressively discovered the deeper and less attractive aspects of his outlook."-Patrick Madigan, The Heythrop Journal, 62, no.1 (2021)

O autorze

Elisa Kriza, PhD, Aarhus University, Denmark, has previously taught courses on dissident and émigré literature and on cultural encounters and conflicts. Her research focus lies on the interrelations of cultural output in international contexts