The Irony of the Ideal

Paradoxes of Russian Literature

By: Mikhail Epstein

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Hardcover | 19 October 2017

At a Glance

Hardcover
458 Pages

Age
18+

Grade
13+

Dimensions(cm)
23.8 x 15.9 x 2.54

Hardcover

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This book explores the major paradoxes of Russian literature as a manifestation of both tragic and ironic contradictions of human nature and national character. Russian literature, from Pushkin and Gogol to Chekhov, Nabokov and to postmodernist writers, is studied as a holistic text that plays on the reversal of such opposites as being and nothingness, reality and simulation, and rationality and absurdity. The glorification of Mother Russia exposes her character as a witch; a little man is transformed into a Christ figure; consistent rationality betrays its inherent madness, and extreme verbosity produces the effect of silence. The greatest Russian writers were masters of spiritual selfaEURO"denial and artistic selfaEURO"destruction, which explains many paradoxes and unpredictable twists of Russian history up to our time.

Industry Reviews

"Not every world-class cultural critic can also produce the breathtaking close reading-but such is Epstein's gift. He sees equally clearly from the outside looking in and the inside looking out. This tour de force chronicle, covering three centuries of literary masterpieces, starts with the Faustian demonic in Pushkin and ends with Russian Being and Nothingness: Nabokov, Platonov, forms of falling silent. Throughout, Epstein reveals the deep affinities between German philosophy and Russian fictions. Russian ontology has been perhaps the more ecstatic and insistent to destroy what it worships. And the fate of Russian literature has been to inspire the planet."

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