Riddle Of The Riddle

First Published in 2005. The true folk riddle of oral traditions that have been rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth in the last hundred years is one of the most ancient threads of culture. One of the smallest genres of verbal culture―usually under a dozen of words, it is an intensely articulated utterance. It is eccentric and as such breaks every logical mould. This volume presents results of a study driven by the sheer intellectual curiosity of the author.

Savely Senderovich, born in 1935 in Odessa, USSR (modern-day Ukraine); studied Russian philology at Odessa University, German philosophy at Leningrad University; in 1974 emigrated to the USA; in 1977 earned a Ph.D. in Russian literature at New York University; since 1977 Professor of Russian Literature & Medieval Studies at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; author of studies in German philosophy, Russian letters from the eleventh through the twentieth centuries (including books on Pushkin and Chekhov), Russian cultural history (including a book on St. Gorge in Russian culture and essays on the origin of Russian historiography), folklore, and literary theory. In recent years he has written over 30 papers on Vladimir Nabokov, both Russian and English, in collaboration with Yelena Shvarts.