1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910476783603321

Autore

Griffiths Frederick T.

Titolo

Epic and the Russian Novel from Gogol to Pasternak / / Frederick T. Griffiths, Stanley J. Rabinowitz

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Boston, Massachusetts : , : Academic Studies Press, , [2011]

©2011

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (240 pages)

Collana

Studies in Russian and Slavic literatures, cultures and history

Disciplina

891.71009

Soggetti

Epic literature, Russian - History and criticism

Russian fiction - 19th century - History and criticism

Russian fiction - 20th century - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PREFACE -- 1. Epic and Novel -- 2. Gogol in Rome -- 3. Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov -- 4. Tolstoy and Homer -- 5. Doctor Zhivago and the Tradition of National Epic -- 6. Stalin and the Death of Epic -- Works Cited -- INDEX.

Sommario/riassunto

Epic and the Russian Novel from Gogol to Pasternak examines the origin of the nineteen- century Russian novel and challenges the Lukács-Bakhtin theory of epic. By removing the Russian novel from its European context, the authors reveal that it developed as a means of reconnecting the narrative form with its origins in classical and Christian epic in a way that expressed the Russian desire to renew and restore ancient spirituality. Through this methodology, Griffiths and Rabinowitz dispute Bakhtin's classification of epic as a monophonic and dead genre whose time has passed. Due to its grand themes and cultural centrality, the epic is the form most suited to newcomers or cultural outsiders seeking legitimacy through appropriation of the past. Through readings of Gogol's Dead Souls-a uniquely problematic work, and one which Bakhtin argued was novelistic rather than epic-Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago, and Tolstoy's War and Peace, this book redefines "epic" and how we understand the sweep of Russian literature as a whole.