Text Counter Text : Rereadings in Russian Literary History

Alexander Zholkovsky

ISBN 10: 0804723168 / ISBN 13: 9780804723169

Published by Stanford University Press Okt 1994, 1994

About this Item

Neuware - The introduction discusses the Russian contribution to modern theories of intertextuality, questions some conventional wisdoms of current critical radicalism, and outlines the author's moderately post-structuralist approach to 'close rereading'. The author focuses on such major instances of intertextuality as dialogues between authors' entire oeuvres; uses of a common topos by different authors; modern derivations from classical prototypes; exchanges between contemporaries; and multiple intertexts converging on a single text. The book's five parts take up these cases in a systematic way. 'Rereading' by definition claims novelty, and the author's rereadings are often striking in their originality. Tolstoy's 'After the Ball' is correlated with such disparate contexts as the post-revolutionary Zoshchenko, the post-Stalin Ginzburg, and archaic wedding rituals. Selected Passages is read as a 'regular' Gogol text in light of the post-modern Sasha Sokolov. Ilf and Petrov yield unexpected links to Dostoevsky, while Limonov is found to be rewriting Derzhavin. A chapter on Pushkin and Bunin stories establishes a virtual dialogue between their respective critics, Gershezon and Vygotsky, and ends up by revising the latter's famous analysis of 'Gentle Breathing'. The study of Pasternak's 1930's 'aesthetic collaborationism' challenges the accepted view of him as either an oblivious Poet above the fray or a declared dissident. Finally, a modern short story, Platonov's 'Fro' - is interpreted as a cluster of variations on, simultaneously, a mythological archetype, a classical model, a contemporary target, and the writer's own invariant plot.

Seller Inventory # 9780804723169

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Text Counter Text : Rereadings in Russian Literary History
• Publisher: Stanford University Press Okt 1994
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804723168
• ISBN 13: 9780804723169
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 25D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 25 millimeters depth
• Weight: 721 grams

About this title

Synopsis

A Stanford University Press classic.

About the Author

Alexander Zholkovsky is Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Southern California.