Epic and the Russian Novel from Gogol to Pasternak / / Frederick T. Griffiths, Stanley J. Rabinowitz.

• Superior document: Studies in Russian and Slavic literatures, cultures and history
• VerfasserIn: Griffiths, Frederick T.,; Rabinowitz, Stanley J.,
• TeilnehmendeR: Rabinowitz, Stanley J.,
• Place / Publishing House: Boston, Massachusetts : : Academic Studies Press,, [2011]; ©2011
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Russian and Slavic literatures, cultures and history.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 pages).

Epic and the Russian Novel from Gogol to Pasternak examines the origin of the nineteen- century Russian novel and challenges the Lukács-Bakhtin theory of epic. By removing the Russian novel from its European context, the authors reveal that it developed as a means of reconnecting the narrative form with its origins in classical and Christian epic in a way that expressed the Russian desire to renew and restore ancient spirituality. Through this methodology, Griffiths and Rabinowitz dispute Bakhtin's classification of epic as a monophonic and dead genre whose time has passed. Due to its grand themes and cultural centrality, the epic is the form most suited to newcomers or cultural outsiders seeking legitimacy through appropriation of the past. Through readings of Gogol's Dead Souls-a uniquely problematic work, and one which Bakhtin argued was novelistic rather than epic-Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago, and Tolstoy's War and Peace, this book redefines "epic" and how we understand the sweep of Russian literature as a whole.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PREFACE -- 1. Epic and Novel -- 2. Gogol in Rome -- 3. Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov -- 4. Tolstoy and Homer -- 5. Doctor Zhivago and the Tradition of National Epic -- 6. Stalin and the Death of Epic -- Works Cited -- INDEX.