This collection of essays on Turgenev, Goncharov, Conrad, Dostoevsky, Blok, Briusov, Gor'kii, Pasternak and Nabokov represents diverse voices but is also unified. One invariant is the recurring distinction between "culture" and "civilization" and the vision of Russia as the bearer of culture because it is "barbaric." Another stance advocates the synthesis of "sense and sensibility" and the vision of "Apollo" and "Dionysus" creating a "civilized culture" together. Those voices that delight in the artificiality of civilization are complemented by those apprehensive of the dangers inherent in...

Developed as a reader for upper division undergraduates and beginning graduates, From Symbolism to Socialist Realism offers broad variety of materials contextualizing the literary texts most frequently read in Russian literature courses at this level. These approaches range from critical-theoretical articles, cultural and historical analyses, literary manifestos and declarations of literary aesthetics, memoirs of revolutionary terrorism and arrests by the NKVD, political denunciations, and "literary vignettes" capturing the spirit of its particular time in a nutshell. The voices of this...

Developed as a reader for upper division undergraduates and beginning graduates, From Symbolism to Socialist Realism offers broad variety of materials contextualizing the literary texts most frequently read in Russian literature courses at this level. These approaches range from critical-theoretical articles, cultural and historical analyses, literary manifestos and declarations of literary aesthetics, memoirs of revolutionary terrorism and arrests by the NKVD, political denunciations, and "literary vignettes" capturing the spirit of its particular time in a nutshell. The voices of this...