Russian Literature (PDF)

For most English-speaking readers, Russian literature consists of a
small number of individual writers - nineteenth-century masters
such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev - or a few well-known
works - Chekhov's plays, Brodsky's poems, and perhaps Master and
Margarita and Doctor Zhivago from the twentieth century.
The medieval period, as well as the brilliant tradition of Russian
lyric poetry from the eighteenth century to the present, are almost
completely terra incognita, as are the complex prose
experiments of Nikolai Gogol, Nikolai Leskov, Andrei Belyi, and
Andrei Platonov. Furthermore, those writers who have made an impact
are generally known outside of the contexts in which they wrote and
in which their work has been received.

In this engaging book, Andrew Baruch Wachtel and Ilya Vinitsky
provide a comprehensive, conceptually challenging history of
Russian literature, including prose, poetry and drama. Each of the
ten chapters deals with a bounded time period from medieval Russia
to the present. In a number of cases, chapters overlap
chronologically, thereby allowing a given period to be seen in more
than one context. To tell the story of each period, the authors
provide an introductory essay touching on the highpoints of its
development and then concentrate on one biography, one literary or
cultural event, and one literary work, which serve as prisms
through which the main outlines of a given period?s development can
be discerned. Although the focus is on literature, individual
works, lives and events are placed in broad historical context as
well as in the framework of parallel developments in Russian art
and music.