Pushkin House

Pushkin House PDF Author: Andreĭ Bitov
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
ISBN: 9781564782007
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
"Probably the most interesting work to come out of Soviet literature since the Twenties." London Review of Books

Pushkin House

Pushkin House PDF Author: Andreĭ Bitov
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
ISBN: 9781564782007
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
"Probably the most interesting work to come out of Soviet literature since the Twenties." London Review of Books

The Symmetry Teacher

The Symmetry Teacher PDF Author: Andrei Bitov
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374712093
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
From one of the greatest Russian writers of the past half century comes a metaphysical mystery novel that defies categorization and confounds expectation. Andrei Bitov's The Symmetry Teacher presents itself as the "echo" of an older British novel Bitov once read and had long forgotten. Unable even to recall the name of that novel's author, Bitov reconstructs its literary vision through the fog of memory, creating a group of stories nestled together like a matryoshka doll. In doing so, Bitov evokes the anxieties of the late and post-Soviet decades, confronting urgent questions of conscience and self-deception through an innovative style that revels in paradox and sleight of hand. Unified by the delightfully maddening search for the identity of a writer toiling in obscurity, The Symmetry Teacher takes us through a curious series of episodes: A man meets the devil on a park bench and the devil shows him photographs of the fall of Troy, Shakespeare's legs, and a terrible event that will take place in his future. A young poet fleeing his past is stranded on a windswept island and tormented by a lover and her shape-shifting evil twin. Three friends, unable to become writers, start a literary society where books and manuscripts are neither read nor returned and new members are accepted only if their work is unwritten. A king who reigns over all possible worlds and uses his power to remove stars from the sky turns out to be the compiler of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Writing with impish daring, Bitov crafts an enchanting fiction from interwoven fables. The result challenges the boundaries between life and literature, author and reader, and memory and imagination, exploring the sacrifices that a writer may make out of ardor for his art. Mingling fantasy and satire with moral concern, Bitov is a deserving heir to the tradition of Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Bulgakov. The Symmetry Teacher showcases the work of a postmodern master at the height of his craft.

Andrei Bitov

Andrei Bitov PDF Author: Ellen Chances
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521418973
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
This is the first book on Andrei Bitov, one of contemporary Russia's most original writers. It plots his evolution from his early publications of the post-Stalin years to his mature masterpieces of the glasnost era. Ellen Chances assesses his place both in the Russian literary tradition from Pushkin onwards, and as part of a broader, international cultural heritage including Dickens, Fellini, and Proust. She explores his themes, from the psychological effects of Stalin on Soviet society to universal questions such as the human being's relationship with nature, history and culture, and discovers in his deeply philosophical and intensely psychological writings an innovative methodology, 'ecological prose', that goes beyond modernist and post-modernist fragmentation in search of the wholeness of life.

The Monkey Link

The Monkey Link PDF Author: Andrei Bitov
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374526281
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
In the waning years of the Empire, a poet traverses Russia, from the Baltics to the capital, to the shores of the Black Sea. Along the way, he discusses man's place in the scheme of things with, among others, a very sober scientist and a very drunken landscape painter. He is harassed by the authorities, spends time on a movie set, and is an eyewitness to the August 1991 coup. Full of talk, philosophical speculation and dark humor, this sweeping, intricately structured novel challenges the form even as it presents a highly original view of the world and the former Soviet Union.

Russian Postmodernism

Russian Postmodernism PDF Author: Mikhail Epstein
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781571810281
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
The last ten years were decisive for Russia, not only in the political sphere, but also culturally as this period saw the rise and crystallization of Russian postmodernism. The essays, manifestos, and articles gathered here investigate various manifestations of this crucial cultural trend. Exploring Russian fiction, poetry, art, and spirituality, they provide a point of departure and a valuable guide to an area of contemporary literary-cultural studies which is currently insufficiently represented in English-language scholarship. A brief but useful "Who's Who in Russian Postmodernism" as an appendix introduces many authors who have never before appeared in a reference work of this kind and renders this book essential reading for those interested in the latest trends in Russian intellectual life.

A Captive of the Caucasus

A Captive of the Caucasus PDF Author: Andreĭ Bitov
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Authors, Russian
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The Caucasus, Bitov the traveler is a captive, however alienated, of his homeland, too. Bitov's works characteristically proceed from and comment on one another, and the realization of captivity leads to a different journey; the second account, Choosing a Location, an entertaining impressionistic record of his travels in Soviet Georgia, is Bitov's quest for his own place and time. Compellingly conceived and spectacularly crafted, A Captive of the Caucasus is an.

Commemorating Pushkin

Commemorating Pushkin PDF Author: Stephanie Sandler
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804734486
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
Commemorating Pushkin is a study of the fascination with Pushkin that has helped Russian culture define itself, as seen in poems, stories, essays, memoirs, films, museums, and commemorative celebrations.

The Art of Writing Badly

The Art of Writing Badly PDF Author: Richard Chandler Borden
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 9780810116917
Category : Modernism (Literature)
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
"The art of writing badly" is a phrase the Russian writer Valentin Kataev coined to describe the work that came out of the mauvist movement in Russia-a style of writing that consciously challenged Soviet dogma. In this book, Richard Borden discusses the cultural and political context from which these authors emerged and the development of "bad writing." Beginning with a close examination of the work of Kataev, the best-known progenitor of "bad writing," Borden then broadens his study to include the "mauvist creations" of post-Stalinist writers Aksenov, Bitov, Sokolov, Limonov, Evgeny Popov, and Venedikt Erofeev. Borden shows how these writers' shared mauvistic characteristics reveal major philosophical and aesthetic tendencies in contemporary Russian culture, bring to light facets of their writing that have never been discussed, and enrich the readings of the particular texts under discussion.

Uncensored

Uncensored PDF Author: Ann Komaromi
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810131242
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Literature that was self-published and informally circulated in the former Soviet Union in order to evade censorship, in addition to prosecution of its authors, came to be known as samizdat. Vasilii Aksenov, Andrei Bitov, and Venedikt Erofeev were among its most acclaimed practitioners. In her innovative study, Ann Komaromi uses their work to argue for a far more sophisticated understanding of the phenomenon of samizdat, showing how the material circumstances of its creation and dissemination exercised a profound influence on the very idea of dissidence. When a text comes to life as samizdat, it necessarily reconfigures the relationship between author and reader. Using archival research to fully illustrate samizdat’s social and historical context, Komaromi arrives at a more nuanced theoretical position that breaks down the opposition between the autonomous work of art and direct political engagement. The similarities between samizdat and digital culture give her formulation of dissident subjectivity particular contemporary relevance.

The Blizzard

The Blizzard PDF Author: Vladimir Sorokin
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374114374
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
"In this short, surreal twist on the classic Russian novel, a doctor travels to a distant village to save its citizens from an epidemic, but a metaphysical snowstorm gets in his way"--