The silver age in Russian literature: selected papers from the Fourth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies, Harrogate, 1990

The world of classical Greece likewise provides the background of Benedikt Livshits' poem cycle Patmos, discussed by Ronald Vroon. Livshits is another poet to whom little attention has been paid until very recently. Ronald Vroon shows how he develops beyond the movements which earlier claimed his allegiance and reveals in these poems, written between 1919 and 1927, his individual voice.It could hardly be said that Gorky has suffered critical neglect. Yet his status as an unchallengeable Soviet luminary has in fact done much to inhibit serious study. Andrew Barratt examines a telling ambiguity in one of his early stories, which must lead to a reconsideration of some accepted notions about him.Sologub, too, has been extensively written about, particularly in the West. Nevertheless Milton Ehre succeeds in casting a fresh glance upon his best-known and most discussed novel, and presenting a convincing new reading of its central themes.Lena Szilard takes a single name from Belyi 's Kotik Letaev and explains its significance in terms of the Symbolists' interpretation of the world of Dante. This in turn is developed into a speculative argument about the consequences for Russian culture of missing that stage of pre-Renaissance which Dante represents and which, in her view, the Symbolists sought to retrieve.The volume ends with an essay by Robert Maguire and John Malmstad which juxtaposes two of the best-known novels of the early iwentieth century. They show the wealth of textual references that Zamiatin's We makes to Belyi's Petersburg. The influence of Belyi's novel on prose writers of the following generation is a commonplace critical observation of long standing. Nevertheless this is in fact the first time that such a connection has been demonstrated in detail. Ivan Konevskoi: Bogatyr Of Russian Symbolism / Joan Delaney Grossman -- Maksimilian Voloshin As A Memoirist / Vladimir Kupchenko -- The Metaphysical Concept Of Light Or The Neo- Platonic Principle Of Emanation In The Poetry Of Maksimilian Voloshin / Natalie Roklina -- The Poet As Translator -- Creative Fidelity: Voloshin's Version Of Verhaeren's La Peur / Vera Adamantova -- Viacheslav Ivanov's Apollini: A Moment In Modernist Poetics / Denis Mickiewicz -- Benedikt Livshits' Patmos: The Cycle And Its Subjects / Ronald Vroon -- Gordy's My Fellow Traveller: Parable And Metaphor / Andrew Barratt -- Fedor Sologub's The Petty Demon: Eroticism, Decadence And Time / Milton Ehre -- Andrei Belyi And His Beatrice / Lena Szilard -- The Legacy Of Petersburg: Ziamiatin's We / Robert Maguire And John Malmstad. Edited By John Elsworth. Published In Association With The International Council For Soviet And East European Studies--verso T.p. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This volume consists of ten essays by scholars from the Soviet Union, the United States and New Zealand on aspects of Russian literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With the exception of Gorky, all the authors considered belong to one or another branch of the Modernist movement. They range from Ivan Konevskoi, precursor of Symbolism, who died tragically young in 1901, to Evgenii Zamiatin and Benedikt Livshits, writing in the 1920s. The work of Maksimilian Voloshin from the early years of the century through to the 1920s is reflected in three essays, while others are concerned with the work of Viacheslav Ivanov, Fedor Sologub and Andrei Belyi. All the essays are based upon papers that were read at the Fourth International Congress of Slavists at Harrogate in 1990. Each contribution advances our understanding either by offering a fresh interpretation or by presenting new material Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Ivan Konevskoi: Bogatyr of Russian Symbolism....Pages 1-10 Maksimilian Voloshin as a Memoirist....Pages 11-31 The Metaphysical Concept of Light, or the Neoplatonic Principle of Emanation in the Poetry of Maksimilian Voloshin....Pages 32-58 The Poet as Translator — Creative Fidelity: Voloshin’s Version of Verhaeren’s ‘La Peur’....Pages 59-73 Viacheslav Ivanov’s Apollini: A Moment in Modernist Poetics....Pages 74-103 Benedikt Livshits’Patmos: The Cycle and its Subtexts....Pages 104-135 Gorky’s My Fellow-Traveller: Parable and Metaphor....Pages 136-155 Fedor Sologub’s The Petty Demon: Eroticism, Decadence and Time....Pages 156-170 Andrei Belyi and his Beatrice....Pages 171-181 The Legacy of Petersburg: Zamiatin’s We....Pages 182-195 Back Matter....Pages 197-200 This volume consists of ten essays by scholars from the Soviet Union, the United States and New Zealand on aspects of Russian literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. With the exception of Gorky, all the authors considered belong to one or another branch of the Modernist movement. They include Ivan Konevskoi, who died tragically young in 1901, the poets Maksimilian Voloshin, Viacheslav Ivanov and Benedikt Livshits, and the prose writers Fedor Sologub, Andrei Belyi and Evgenii Zamiatin.