Abstract: In prose, and especially in narrative prose, the poetic system of repetitive parallel elements is less conspicuous than in verse composition. And yet the poetry of narrative prose is likewise brought about by elaborate systems of parallels and equivalences that prompt the reader to transform the true-to-life representation of events and characters into higher, symbolic levels of meaning. The readings in this book explore the functions of parallelistic patterning in narrative Russian literature: from the figural interpretation of early East Slavic hagiography — the juxtaposition of saints’ lives with the gospel narratives about the life of Christ — to the deployment of related forms of parabolic projection in the works the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists. It is the uncovering of such patterns that provides access to the symbolic dimension of the Russian novel. Contents Preface Introduction Chapter One · Medieval East Slavic Literature 988–1730 Chapter Two · Religion and Art in the Russian Novel Chapter Three · The Function of Hagiography in Dostoevsky’s Novels Chapter Four · Polyphony in The Brothers Karamazov: Variations on a Theme Chapter Five · Dostoevskian Fools—Holy and Unholy Chapter Six · Dostoevsky’s Idiot or the Poetics of Emptiness Chapter Seven · Male Homosocial Desire in The Idiot Chapter Eight · The Last Delusion in an Infinite Series of Delusions: Stavrogin and the Symbolic Structure of Demons Chapter Nine · The Poetry of Prose: The Art of Parallelism in Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons Chapter Ten · Seeing the World Through Genres Index of Names
Publication Year: 2017
Publication Date: 2017-03-08
Language: en
Type: article
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