The enigma of Isaac Babel : biography, history, context

A literary cult figure on a par with Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel has remained an enigma ever since he disappeared, along with his archive, inside Stalin's secret police headquarters in May of 1939. Made famous by __Red Cavalry__, a book about the Russian civil war (he was the world's first "embedded" war reporter), another book about the Jewish gangsters of his native Odessa, and yet another about his own Russian Jewish childhood, Babel has been celebrated by generations of readers, all craving fuller knowledge of his works and days. Bringing together scholars of different countries and areas of specialization, the present volume is the first examination of Babel's life and art since the fall of communism and the opening of Soviet archives. Part biography, part history, part critical examination of the writer's legacy in Russian, European, and Jewish cultural contexts, __The Enigma of Isaac Babel__ will be of interest to the general reader and specialist alike. A Literary Cult Figure On A Par With Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel Disappeared In May 1939 When He Was Arrested By Soviet Secret Police. As Soviet-era Archives Have Become Subject To Scholarly Scrutiny So It Has Become Possible To Create A More Rounded Portrait Of Babel And To Answer Questions About His Fate. Attempting A Biography. Researching Babel's Biography : Adventures And Misadventures / Patricia Blake -- Babels' Two Aphrodites : Autobiography In Maria And Babel's Petersburg Myth / Gregory Freidin -- Babel In The Context Of Russian History. The Reds And The Jews, Or The Comrades In Arms Of The Military Reporter Liutov / Oleg Budnitskii -- Isaac Babel And The Jewish Experience Of Revolution / Carol J. Avins -- Writers At The Front : Language Of State In The Civil War Narratives Of Isaac Babel And Dmitrii Furmanov / Michael S. Gorham -- Thinned And Diluted : Babel In Published Russian Literature Of The Soviet Period / Marietta Chudakova -- Babel In The World Of Letters And On Stage. Babel, Flaubert, And The Rapture Of Perception / Robert Alter -- Towards A Typology Of Debut Narratives : Babel, Nabokov, And Others / Alexander Zholkovsky -- Pan Pisar' : Clerkship In Babel's First-person Narration / Elif Batuman -- The Child's Eye : Isaac Babel In Russian-jewish, American, And European Literature Of Assimilation / Zsuzsa Hetényi -- Text, Intertext, Context : Babel, Bialik, And Others / Efraim Sicher -- Staging Babel's Maria For Young American Audiences, Seventy Years After / Carl Weber. Edited By Gregory Freidin. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Bringing together scholars of different countries and areas of specialization, this volume is the first examination of Babel's life and art since the fall of communism and the opening of Soviet archives. It is written as part biography, part history, and part critical examination of the writer's legacy in Russian, European, and Jewish cultural contexts.--[book jacket] Annotation Part biography, part history, part critical examination of Babel's legacy in Russian, European, and Jewish cultural context, The Enigma of Isaac Babel offers the first comprehensive view of the great Russian Jewish author since the opening of Soviet archives