Plotting history : the Russian historical novel in the Imperial Age / Dan Ungurianu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ungurianu, Dan.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historical fiction, Russian--History and criticism.

Historical fiction, Russian.

Russian fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

Russian fiction.

Physical Description:

xii, 335 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, [2007]

Summary:

Balanced precariously between fact and fiction, the historical novel is often viewed with suspicion. Some have attacked it as a mongrel form, a "bastard son" born of "history's flagrant adultery with imagination." Yet it includes some of the most celebrated achievements of Russian literature, with Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and scores of other writers contributing to this tradition.

Dan Ungurianu's Plotting History traces the development of the Russian historical novel from its inception in the romantic era to the emergence of Modernism on the eve of the Revolution. Organized historically and thematically, the study is focused on the cultural paradigms that shaped the evolution of the genre and are reflected in masterpieces such as The Captain's Daughter and War and Peace. Ungurianu examines the variety of approaches by which Russian writers combined fact with fiction and explores the range of subjects that inspired the Russian historical imagination.

Contents:

Introduction: Fact, Fiction, and the Anxiety of Genre 3

1 An Overview of the Romantic Era 13

2 Fact and Fiction in the Romantic Novel 40

3 The Changing and the Unchanged 55

4 Masterpieces in Context: Taras Bulba and The Captain's Daughter 76

5 Tolstoy's "Book" and a New Kind of Historical Novel 97

6 The Age of Positivism: "Historiographie Romancee" 125

7 The End of Progress: Facets of the Modernist Paradigm 149

In Lieu of a Conclusion: A Tale of Three Cities, or the Reincarnations of Saint Petersburg in the Russian Historical Novel 189

Appendix A Chronological and Thematic Distribution of Works 209

Appendix B Annotated List of Authors 263.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-323) and index.

ISBN:

0299225003

9780299225001

OCLC:

236164484

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description