Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature about the Poor
Publication Date: 28/09/2001
The primal scene of all nineteenth-century Western thought might well be the moment an observer gazed at someone poor, most commonly on the streets of a great metropolis, and wondered what the spectacle meant in human, moral, political, and metaphysical terms. In Russia, where so much of the population was impoverished, the moment held special significance. David Herman examines how Russian writers portrayed this poverty and what their portrayal reveals and articulates about core values of Russian culture.<P>Focussing on specific texts but addressing the literary tradition as a whole, Herman begins with Karamzin's immensely popular story "Poor Liza", the first in a sequence of poverty narratives that self-consciously address one another. He then considers Pushkin's "Egyptian Nights"; Gogol's "Overcoat", Petersburg tales, and Selected Passages; and Dostoevsky's Idiot and 1880 "Pushkin speech".<P>With a series of innovative readings, Poverty of the Imagination teases out a Russian discourse on lack which owes its peculiar richness to an insistence on solving simultaneously problems of social justice, national identity, and the ethics of the human imagination. As prominently as poverty figures in Russian literature, this is the first sustained analysis of its literary, conceptual, and cultural implications. As such, it deepens our understanding and appreciation of some of the most widely read literature of all time.
- ISBN:
- 9780810116924
- 9780810116924
- Category:
- Anthologies (non-poetry)
- Publication Date:
- 28-09-2001
- Publisher:
- Northwestern University Press
- Country of origin:
- United States
Click 'Notify Me' to get an email alert when this item becomes available
Great!
Click on Save to My Library / Lists
Click on Save to My Library / Lists
Select the List you'd like to categorise as, or add your own
Here you can mark if you have read this book, reading it or want to read
Awesome! You added your first item into your Library
Great! The fun begins.
Click on My Library / My Lists and I will take you there
Click on My Library / My Lists and I will take you there
Reviews
Be the first to review Poverty of the Imagination.
Share This Book: