Synopses & Reviews
Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-302) and index.
Review
"Livak is extremely intelligent and focused, and in everything he does combines the best qualities of a traditional Soviet philological background . . . with a stellar American-style grounding in critical thinking."—David M. Bethea, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Synopsis
Here, reintroduced into literary circulation, is an ignored yet rich and original page in Russian literary history—the "unnoticed generation" of Russian writers who took up residence in France after the Bolshevik coup of 1917. Leonid Livak analyzes the position of these writers in the context of French modernist literature, examining the ways in which French literary life influenced émigré artistic identities and oeuvre. The book challenges commonly accepted notions of émigré isolation from French literature and culture and is instrumental in reaching a fuller understanding of the cultural mechanisms involved in the effort by an expatriate community to carry on a creative existence.
About the Author
Leonid Livak is assistant professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Toronto. He is editor of the annual scholarly review
From the Other Shore: Russian Writers Abroad, Past and Present.Table of Contents
Exilic experience as a cultural construct -- The surrealist adventure of Boris Poplavskii -- The prodigal children of Marcel Proust -- The esthetics of disintegration -- The art of writing a novel.