Poverty of the Imagination: Nineteenth-century Russian Literature About the Poor (Studies in Russian Literature and Theory) - Hardcover

Herman, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810116928 ISBN 13: 9780810116924

Verlag: Northwestern University Press, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

An examination of how 19th-century Russian writers portrayed poverty, and what their portrayal reveals about core values of Russian culture. It focuses on specific texts, such as Karamzin's "Poor Liza" and Pushkin's "Egyptian Nights", but addresses the literary tradition as a whole.

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Reseña del editor

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.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".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.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Northwestern University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0810116928
• ISBN 13: 9780810116924
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 280
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar