Memoirs and madness : Leonid Andreev through the prism of the literary portrait / Frederick H. White.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

White, Frederick H., 1970-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biography as a literary form.

Authors, Russian--20th century--Biography.

Andreyev, Leonid, 1871-1919.

Andreyev, Leonid, 1871-1919--Mental health.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 339 pages) : illustrations, portraits

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Memoirs and Madness examines memoir as a literary genre, investigates the creation of Leonid Andreev's posthumous legacy by his contemporaries, and explores the possibility that Andreev, Russia's leading literary figure at the beginning of the twentieth century, suffered from mental illness. Frederick White's primary focus is A Book About Leonid Andreev (1922), the most important collection of memoirs dedicated to the Russian author, presented here in the first English translation. The agendas of the memoirists resulted in portraits that have influenced how Andreev is read and spoken about to the present day. White pays special attention to Andreev's history of mental illness, which the memoirists described with vague terms such as "creative energy" or "inner turmoil." Past scholarship has focused on philosophical and sociological factors in the author's life but this concentration on his mental health provides a fruitful approach to deciphering the literary portraits.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Leonid Andreev through the Prism of the Literary Portrait

Introduction

Maksim Gor’kii

Kornei Chukovskii

Aleksandr Blok

Georgii Chulkov

Boris Zaitsev

Nikolai Teleshov

Evgenii Zamiatin

Andrei Belyi

The Literary Portrait

Projecting Personal Isolation

“He is not with them, he is with us, he is ours”: Belyi

The Importance of Friendship and Sreda: Teleshov

Creative Energy and Manic Episodes: Chukovskii

Inner Turmoil and the Dark Side of Depression: Chulkov

A Shared Sense of Chaos: Blok

The Dreamer and the Mathematician: Gor’kii

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

"Includes an annotated translation of A book about Leonid Andreev."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612850059

9780773577947

0773577947

9781282850057

1282850059

9780773560086

0773560084

OCLC:

311308012