Hidden in Plain View: Narrative and Creative Potentials in 'War and Peace' - Softcover

Morson, Gary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804717184 ISBN 13: 9780804717182

Verlag: Stanford University Press, 1988

Inhaltsangabe

For decades, the formal peculiarities of War and Peace disturbed Russian and Western critics, who attributed both the anomalous structure and the literary power of the book to Tolstoy's "primitive," unruly genius. Using that critical history as a starting point, this volume recaptures the overwhelming sense of strangeness felt by the work's first readers and thereby illuminates Tolstoy's theoretical and narratological concerns. The author demonstrates that the formal peculiarities of War and Peace were deliberate, designed to elude what Tolstoy regarded as the falsifying constraints of all narratives, both novelistic and historical. Developing and challenging the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin, Morson explores Tolstoy's account of the work's composition in light of various myths of the creative process. He proposes a theory of "creation by potential" that incorporates Tolstoy's main concerns: the "openness" of each historical moment; the role of chance in history and within narrative patterns; and the efficacy of ordinary events, "hidden in plain view," in shaping history and individual psychology. In his reading of Tolstoy, he demonstrates how we read literary works within the "penumbral text" of associated theories of creativity.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gary Saul Morson is Professor of Slavic Languages and Comparative Literature at Northwestern University, and the author of The Boundaries of Genre: Dostoevsky's 'Diary of a Writer' and the Traditions of Literary Utopia, and the editor of Literature and History: Theoretical Problems and Russian Case Studies.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

For decades, the formal peculiarities of War and Peace disturbed Russian and Western critics, who attributed both the anomalous structure and the literary power of the book to Tolstoy’s “primitive,” unruly genius. Using that critical history as a starting point, this volume recaptures the overwhelming sense of strangeness felt by the work’s first readers and thereby illuminates Tolstoy’s theoretical and narratological concerns.
The author demonstrates that the formal peculiarities of War and Peace were deliberate, designed to elude what Tolstoy regarded as the falsifying constraints of all narratives, both novelistic and historical. Developing and challenging the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin, Morson explores Tolstoy’s account of the work’s composition in light of various myths of the creative process. He proposes a theory of “creation by potential” that incorporates Tolstoy’s main concerns: the “openness” of each historical moment; the role of chance in history and within narrative patterns; and the efficacy of ordinary events, “hidden in plain view,” in shaping history and individual psychology. In his reading of Tolstoy, he demonstrates how we read literary works within the “penumbral text” of associated theories of creativity.

Aus dem Klappentext

For decades, the formal peculiarities of War and Peace disturbed Russian and Western critics, who attributed both the anomalous structure and the literary power of the book to Tolstoy s primitive, unruly genius. Using that critical history as a starting point, this volume recaptures the overwhelming sense of strangeness felt by the work s first readers and thereby illuminates Tolstoy s theoretical and narratological concerns.
The author demonstrates that the formal peculiarities of War and Peace were deliberate, designed to elude what Tolstoy regarded as the falsifying constraints of all narratives, both novelistic and historical. Developing and challenging the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin, Morson explores Tolstoy s account of the work s composition in light of various myths of the creative process. He proposes a theory of creation by potential that incorporates Tolstoy s main concerns: the openness of each historical moment; the role of chance in history and within narrative patterns; and the efficacy of ordinary events, hidden in plain view, in shaping history and individual psychology. In his reading of Tolstoy, he demonstrates how we read literary works within the penumbral text of associated theories of creativity.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1988
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0804717184
• ISBN 13: 9780804717182
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 338
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar