Russians Abroad
Literary and Cultural Politics of Diaspora (1919-1939)
Published on 10. May 2013
Book
Hardback
300 pages
978-1-61811-214-9 (ISBN)
Description
This book presents an array of perspectives on the vivid cultural and literary politics that marked the period immediately after the October Revolution of 1917, when Russian writers had to relocate to Berlin and Paris under harsh conditions. Divided amongst themselves and uncertain about the political and artistic directions of life in the diaspora, these writers carried on two simultaneous literary dialogues: with the emerging Soviet Union and with the dizzying world of European modernism that surrounded them in the West. Chapters address generational differences, literary polemics and experimentation, the heritage of pre-October Russian modernism, and the fate of individual writers and critics, offering a sweeping view of how exiles created a literary diaspora.
Reviews / Votes
A collection of essays which opens up many lines of enquiry as it is-and provides many original answers." - Modern Language Review, Volume 111, Part 2, April 2016"The chief value of this collection of essays is that it clearly traces some of the important dynamics of the post-1917 literary emigration. It shows how emigre literature relates to Russian literature of other periods and to broader questions of identity; as well as countering the usual stereotypes, it demonstrates that emigre letters need not-should not-be studied as a thing apart. . . . [T]his is a collection of essays which opens up many lines of enquiry as it is-and provides many original answers. Prefaced with an eloquent tribute by Galin Tihanov, it stands as a fine tribute to Greta Slobin and the breadth of her scholarship." -- Adam Fergus (University of Sheffield), Modern Language Review, Volume 111, Part 2 (April 2016)
More details
Persons
Greta Slobin (PhD Yale University) was professor of literature at University of California-Santa Cruz, USA and also taught at Amherst College, Wesleyan University, and SUNYAlbany.