Synopses & Reviews
Bakhtin, Stalin, and Modern Russian Fiction presents an advanced introduction to the work of the Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, focusing on the concepts of carnival, dialogism, and historicism. The discussion of Bakhtin pays particular attention to the impact of his historical context in the Soviet Union and to the importance of his own dialogic mode of discourse. Bakhtin's ideas are then placed in dialogic relation to the works of several important writers of modern Russian fiction, including Vassily Aksyonov, Ilf and Petrov, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Yuz Aleshkovsky, Andrei Bitov, and Sasha Sokolov.
Synopsis
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to many of the major ideas of Bakhtin, along with a straightforward illustration of those ideas through application to Russian literature.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-176) and index.
About the Author
M. KEITH BOOKER is Associate Professor of English and director of Graduate Studies at the University of Arkansas.DUBRAVKA JURAGA is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Arkansas.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Reading Bakhtin Dialogically
Dialogism, Carnival, and Chronotope in the Fiction of Vassily Aksyonov: A Bakhtin Primer
"Look Both Ways": Double-Voiced Satire in the Work of Ilf and Petrov
Language, Genre, and Satire in the Works of Mikhail Zoshchenko
Good and Evil, Truth and Lie: Dualism and Dialogism in the Fiction of Yuz Aleshkovsky
The House that Bitov Built: Postmodernism and Stalinism in Pushkin House
All-Purpose Parody: Sasha Sokolov's Astrophobia
Works Cited
Index