1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910886018303321

Autore

Scollins Kathleen

Titolo

Acts of Logos in Pushkin and Gogol : Petersburg Texts and Subtexts / / Kathleen Scollins

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Boston, MA : , : Academic Studies Press, , [2017]

©2017

ISBN

1-61811-583-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (328 pages)

Collana

Liber Primus

Classificazione

KI 1000

Disciplina

891.71/3

Soggetti

Russian literature - 19th century - History and criticism

Personification in literature

Symbolism in literature

Saint Petersburg (Russia) In literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue: In the Beginning was Peter's Word -- Introduction: St. Petersburg Myth, Text, Word -- 1. Cursing at the Whirlwind The Book of Job according to Pushkin -- 2. Gambling Away the Petri-mony R ival Models of Social Advancement in Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades" -- 3. Body Parts, Puff Pastries, and the Devil Himself N evsky Prospect as the Hellmouth of Gogol's Petersburg -- 4. Mertvye ushi The Annunciation Motif and Disorder of the Senses in "The Nose" -- 5. Kako sdelan Akakii Letter as Hero in "The Overcoat" -- Conclusion: Beyond the Schism -- Works Cited -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Acts of Logos examines the 19th-century foundations of St. Petersburg's famous literary heritage, with a focus on the unifying principle of material animation. Ever since Pushkin's 1833 poem The Bronze Horseman, the city has provided a literary space in which inanimate things (noses, playing cards, overcoats) spring to life. Scollins's book addresses this issue of animacy by analyzing the powerful function of language in the city's literature, from its mythic origins-in which the tsar Peter appears as a God-like creator, calling his city forth from nothing-to the earliest texts of its literary tradition,



when poets took up the pen to commit their own acts of verbal creation. Her interpretations shed new light on the canonical works of Pushkin and Gogol, exposing the performative and subversive possibilities of the poetic word in the Petersburg tradition, and revealing an emerging literary culture capable of challenging the official narratives of the state.