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Edited Book No access
Literary Biographies in the Lives of Remarkable People Series in Russia
Biography for the Masses
Editors:
|
Publisher:
2022
Summary
The legendary Russian biography series, The Lives of Remarkable People, has played a significant role in Russian culture from its inception in 1890 until today. The longest running biography series in world literature, it spans three centuries and widely divergent political and cultural epochs: Imperial, Soviet, and Post-Soviet Russia. The authors argue that the treatment of biographical figures in the series is a case study for continuities and changes in Russian national identity over time. Biography in Russia and elsewhere remains a most influential literary genre and the distinctive approach and branding of the series has made it the economic engine of its publisher, Molodaia gvardiia. The centrality of biographies of major literary figures in the series reflects their heightened importance in Russian culture. The contributors examine the ways that biographies of Russia's foremost writers shaped the literary canon while mirroring the political and social realities of both the subjects’ and their biographers' times. Starting with Alexander Pushkin and ending with Joseph Brodsky, the authors analyze the interplay of research and imagination in biographical narrative, the changing perceptions of what constitutes literary greatness, and the subversive possibilities of biography during eras of political censorship.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2022
ISBN-Print
978-1-7936-1829-0
ISBN-Online
978-1-7936-1830-6
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
340
Product type
Edited Book
Table of contents
ChapterPages
A Note on Transliteration No access
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
Writing and Rewriting the Literary Canon No access Pages 1 - 44
Chapter 1 The Remarkable Pushkin No access Pages 45 - 68
Chapter 2 Larger than Life No access Pages 69 - 92
Chapter 3 N. V. Gogol, Biographer’s Conundrum No access Pages 93 - 118
Chapter 4 Remarkable Tolstoy, from the Age of the Tsars to the Putin Era No access Pages 119 - 144
Chapter 5 Per Aspera Ad Astra No access Pages 145 - 170
Chapter 6 In Search of the “True” Chekhov No access Pages 171 - 190
Chapter 7 From Idol to Villain and (Almost) Back No access Pages 191 - 216
Chapter 8 Alexander Blok as the Model Modernist No access Pages 217 - 232
Chapter 9 Narrating Eccentricity No access Pages 233 - 254
Chapter 10 Mikhail Bulgakov No access Pages 255 - 272
Chapter 11 Between Biography and Mythology No access Pages 273 - 300
