DOCSLIB.ORG

Institute of Distance and Open Learning Gauhati University

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Institute of Distance and Open Learning Gauhati University ENG-02-20 Institute of Distance and Open Learning Gauhati University MA in English Semester 4 Paper 20 European II - Modern European Fiction Contents: Block 1: Short Russian Fiction Block 2: The Novel in Russian Block 3: The Novel in German Block 4: The Novel in French (1) Contributors: Block 1: Short Russian Fiction Unit 1 : Afrah Abdul Kafi Mohammed & Musaeva Cholpon Mirbekovna EFL University, Hyderabad Unit 2 : Afrah Abdul Kafi Mohammed Musaeva Cholpon Mirbekovna & Shana Ninan EFL University, Hyderabad Unit 3 : Reju George Mathew & C. Arumugathai EFL University, Hyderabad Block 2: The Novel in Russian Unit 1 : Sradha Somraj EFL University,Hyderabad Unit 2 : Sweta Mukherjee EFL University, Hyderabad Unit 3 : Smitha Vallathol EFL University, Hyderabad Unit 4 : Apeksha Harsh & Vidya Kesavan EFL University, Hyderabad Block 3: The Novel in German Units 1, 3 & 4 : Prasenjit Das Assistant Professor in English KKHSOU Unit 2 : Dibyajyoti Borah Assistant Professor in English H B Girls’ College, Golaghat Block 4: The Novel in French Units 1, 2, 3 & 4 : Dr. H. Kalpana Rao Reader, Dept. of English Pondicherry University, Pondicherry Editorial Team Dr. Kandarpa Das Director, IDOL, GU Dr. Uttara Debi Assistant Professor in English IDOL, GU Sanghamitra De Guest Faculty in English IDOL, GU Manab Medhi Guest Faculty in English IDOL, GU (2) Cover Page Designing: Kaushik Sarma Graphic Designer CET, IITG February, 2012 © Copyright by IDOL, Gauhati University. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise. Published on behalf of Institute of Distance and Open Learning, Gauhati University by Dr. Kandarpa Das, Director, and printed at Maliyata Offset Press, Mirza-781125. Copies printed 1000. Acknowledgement The Institute of Distance and Open Learning, Gauhati University duly acknowledges the financial assistance from the Distance Education Council, IGNOU, New Delhi, for preparation of this material. (3) Contents Page No. Block 1: Short Russian Fiction Block Introduction 5 Unit 1: Russian Short Stories 7 Unit 2: Gogol and “The Overcoat” 37 Unit 3: Tolstoy and “The Death of Ivan Illyich” 63 Block 2: The Novel in Russian Block Introduction 81 Unit 1: The Russian Novel 83 Unit 2: Dostoevsky and His Work 107 Unit 3: Crime and Punishment 121 Unit 4: Themes and Techniques 147 Block 3: The Novel in German Block Introduction 191 Unit 1: German Novel 193 Unit 2: Kafka and His Works 213 Unit 3: The Trial 227 Unit 4: Themes and Techniques 235 Block 4: The Novel in French Block Introduction 259 Unit 1: Introducing the French novel 261 Unit 2: Albert Camus and His work 273 Unit 3: The Outsider 289 Unit 4: Themes and techniques 299 (4) Block 1: Short Russian Fiction Block Introduction: This block is concerned with short Russian fiction and here an attempt has been made to give you a brief account of the rise of the short story as a genre. The history of the Russian short story has also been connected with the socio-political and literary movements in Russia. The Russian short story emerged at the end of the 18th century, and “did not follow a single course of development and did not immediately take shape as a special and independent genre. For a long time it was ‘dissolved’ within such ‘minor’ prose forms as the novella, the anecdote, the joke and the fairy-tale. The term ‘short story’ did not come into use until the late 1820s. However, for two decades after this, all short prose works were usually called novellas. Only at the end of the 1840s did the short story finally acquire status as a genre although, as before, the dividing line between it and the novella was indeterminate and fluid. It is therefore hardly surprising that many writers often referred to their smaller works sometimes as novellas and sometimes as short stories.” (Bazhanova, G. 1985: 6. Anthology of Russian Short Stories). The development of the short story in Russian literature, in the19th century and afterwards, is not a stable process. At times, it was pushed aside by other literary genres; on other occasions, it was at the leading position. The emergence and development of the short story in Russia as, incidentally, of other forms took place under unique circumstances. Throughout nearly the whole of the 19th century, Russian literature was the only possible form of manifestation for the political activity of the advanced social consciousness. Apart from tracing the development of short fiction, the aim of this block is to help you study and contextualize Gogol’s “The Overcoat” and Tolstoy’s”The Death of Ivan Illyich” in the socio-political scenario of Russia. (5) Contents: Block Introduction Unit 1 : Russian Short Stories Unit 2 : Gogol and “The Overcoat” Unit 3 : Tolstoy and “The Death of Ivan Illyich” (6) Unit 1 Russian Short Stories Contents: 1.1 Objectives 1.2 Introduction 1.3 Form of the short story 1.4 Major Exponents 1.5 Summing Up 1.6 References and Suggested Readings 1.1 OBJECTIVES This unit will give you a brief account of the rise of the short story as a genre during the 19th century. By the end of this unit, you should be able to • make a quick survey of the early stages of short story writing • connect the life and career of short story writers to the stories you have to study 1.2 INTRODUCTION The genre of the short story was born in the early 19th century, and with the passage of time, it started gaining popularity among fiction readers. This, to some extent, has something to do with shrinking leisure time and shrinking patience. A short story is fictional work of prose that is shorter in length than a novel. Edgar Allan Poe, in his essay “The Philosophy of Composition,” said that a short story should be read in one sitting, anywhere from a half hour to two hours. In contemporary fiction, a short story can range from 1,000 to 20,000 words. It ought to carry objective matter-of-fact description with poetic atmosphere and/or present a unified impression of tone, colour and effect, as Poe stated. (7) Critically it is agreed that the short story must conform to certain conditions. First, the writer must work hard to make the one and only impression. His time is too limited; his space is too confined; his risk of dividing the attention of the reader is too great, to admit of more than this one impression. Therefore, he selects some moment of action or some phase of character or some particular scene, and focuses attention upon that. In our daily life, we may witness this kind of brief, clear-cut impressions frequently. When we pass on the street corner two women talking, and from a chance sentence or two, we form a strong impression of the character of one or both. Sometimes we travel through a scene so sad and depressing or so lovely and inspiring that the effect is never forgotten. Such glimpses of life and scene are so vivid. To secure this single strong impression, the writer must decide which of the three essentials—plot, character, or setting—is to have first place. Russian authors give more importance to the social ideas and ideals as compared to other writers. They create their works as reflection of the spirit of their people. The two main requirements for Russian writers are: humanitarian ideals and fidelity. Thomas Seltzer indicates this in his book Best Russian Short Stories: The Russians take literature perhaps more seriously than any other nation. To them a book is not a mere diversion. They demand that fiction and poetry be a true mirror of life and be of service to life. A Russian author, to achieve the highest recognition, must be a thinker also. Everything is subordinated to two main requirements - humanitarian ideals and fidelity to life. This is the secret of the marvelous simplicity of Russian-literary art. Before the supreme function of literature, the Russian writer stands awed and humbled. He knows he cannot cover up poverty of thought, poverty of spirit and lack of sincerity by rhetorical tricks or verbal cleverness. And if he possesses the two essential requirements, the simplest language will suffice. One of the essential traits of Russian writers is the quite unaffected conception that the poor are on a plane of equality with the so-called upper classes. So when we compare them to some English writers who wrote with their profound pity and understanding of the poor, there was yet a bit of remoteness, perhaps, even, a bit of caricature, in their treatment of the (8) lower class. They depicted the sufferings of the lower class to the rest of the world with a “Behold how the other half lives!” The Russian writes of the poor from within, as one of them, with no eye to theatrical effect upon the well-to-do. In Russian Fiction, as Thomas Seltzer states, there is no insistence upon peculiar virtues or vices. The poor are portrayed just as they are, as human beings like the rest of us. A democratic spirit is reflected, breathing a broad humanity, a true universality, an unstudied generosity that proceed not from the intellectual conviction that to understand all is to forgive all, but from an instinctive feeling that no man has the right to set himself up as a judge over another, that one can only observe and record. The simplicity, sincerity, and veraciousness are other traits of Russian literature that we find some Russian writers taking over the perfect form, profiting by its enforced obligations of unity, simplicity, and harmony, and handling it with variety, with interest, and with originality.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Terror Machine
    1 2 3 4 Preface by Edward Crankshaw the now we know a good deal about the brutalities inflicted by the government of the Soviet Union upon those who incur its displeasure. The independent testimonies of survivors add up to a circumstantial and terrible indictment, so that it may be fairly said that anybody who still denies the evidence is the sort of person who would deny anything-or the sort of person who, to preserve his own illusions, will stop his ears to the cries of the dying and condemned. Where we are less well informed is about the effect of the regime on the great mass of Soviet citizens who have managed to keep out of serious trouble. It is not enough to be told by Soviet refugees what Russia looks like through spectacles acquired in Paris, London, or New York. We want to know what it looked like when they were still in Moscow, Odessa, or Novosibirsk, before they began to dream of escaping to the West, or at least before they knew enough about the West to make comparisons. This is not idle curiosity: it is the only way of getting even a faint idea of how the r6gime appears to those who must still live under it. Major Klimov's book is very helpful in this matter. It is a sober, yet vivid, account of life as lived inside the Soviet bureaucracy seen, as far as it is possible for an outsider to judge, very much as it appeared to the narrator before he decided to break away-as it must therefore appear to countless other intelligent Russians who are engaged at this moment in making the machine work.
    [Show full text]
  • Masterworks 8
    “Inside Masterworks” LISTENING IN COLOR M AY 2017 Masterworks #8: Russian Intensity May 12-14, 2017 Overcoming his illegitimate birth to become a well-respected 19th century scientist, Borodin was also a brilliant composer, whose music earned a Broadway Tony Award nearly 60 years after his death. Born in 1833, Aleksandr gift from Prince Gedevanishvili to Borodin and his Borodin was the ‘aunt’.vi The young boy’s gift for languages and illegitimate son of a music was immediately evident: he learned to wealthy 62-year-old play piano, flute and cello, as well as compose.vii Georgian prince, Luka Despite his obvious musical gifts, Borodin was, Gedevanishvili, and first and foremost, a scientist, who viewed music a married 25-year- as a pleasant distraction. In his own words, old woman, the wife “Music is a pastime, a relaxation from more of an army doctor.i To serious endeavors.”viii From 1850 to 1856, he conceal the circumstances of his birth, Borodin’s studied at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. father registered the boy as the son of one of his Petersburg, the renowned institution that would Russian serfs, Porfiry Borodin, thus explaining later be home to Ivan Pavlov.ix With a specialty in the composer’s surname.ii As a result of the chemistry, Borodin graduated with his doctorate registration, both Borodin and his “designated in 1858, spent a year as a surgeon in a military father” were officially serfs, owned by Borodin’s hospital, and then embarked on a three-year biological father.iii The nobleman father course of advanced scientific
    [Show full text]
  • Interracial Marriage
    How to improve your marriage By studying love and romance in the Bible Copyright All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. Glenn Pease and Steve Pease ABOUT THIS BOOK Do you have the perfect marriage? Do you ever have problems with your spouse? Do you ever wish they would be different in how they do thing? Do you wish your partner was more like when you met them? Thinking about these questions and your answers will make you think about if things could be better, and how together you can make things great. In this book we will discuss what God says, and what Jesus did, and what Godly men in the Bible did to make their love stronger and their marriages better. Then we will discuss some very easy to do things that you can do to show your partner you love them and that you want them to be happy. You will learn that if you praise your partner, in little things, the big things will go much easier. Almost everyone is in love when they get married, what happens, do we fall out of love? If so why do we fall out of love? Things change when the honeymoon is over and we start living our everyday lives of work and dealing with normal things that happen in life.
    [Show full text]
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (27 January 1756 ² 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers. Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of Mozart's death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. Mozart learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate. His influence on subsequent Western art music is profound. Beethoven wrote his own early compositions in the shadow of Mozart, of whom Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years." Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born to Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl Mozart at 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, capital of the sovereign Archbishopric of Salzburg, in what is now Austria but, at the time, was part of the Bavarian Circle in the Holy Roman Empire.
    [Show full text]
  • Pacific Health Jourxal - and Temperance Advocate
    PACIFIC HEALTH JOURXAL - AND TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE. VOLUME VI. OAKLAND, CAL_ JANUARY, 1891. NUMBER 1. W. P. BURKE, M. D., Editor. RELATIONS OF MIND AND BODY IN EAT- 21 82-P21GE MONTHLYe ING AND DRINKING. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, : $1.00 PER YEAR. THE soul is the source of many of the wrongs Address.—All business for the JOURNAL should be ad- in human life, but it is not the only source. It is dressed to PACIFIC HEALTH JOURNAL, care of Rural a fact that influences both good and bad pass over Health Retreat, St. Helena, Cal. All Drafts or Money Orders sent in payment of sub- from the mind to the body; certainly it is equally scriptions should be addressed to, and made payable to, true that these same influences pass from the lower Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal. All Communications for the JOURNAL should be ad- to the higher nature. Vicious thoughts, lustful dressed to PACIFIC HEALTH JOURNAL, care of Rural feelings and imaginations go from mind to body Health Retreat, St. Helena, Cal. over the road of unbridled appetites, unrestrained passions, and unsubdued lusts, and the same cor- SHORT SERMONS. rupt feelings and evil imaginations return from THE man who loves his duty never slights it. body to mind over the same road, goading it on A FRIEND is one who hunts you when you are to the wildest conceptions of vice. Evil thoughts lost. and imaginations give inward tone to the body, so the body reacts on the mind, by its appetites and COMMON sense is a hard thing to have too passions, increasing the viciousness of the latter much of.
    [Show full text]
  • The Holy New Martyrs of Northern and Western Russia, Belorussia and the Baltic Introduction
    THE HOLY NEW MARTYRS OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN RUSSIA, BELORUSSIA AND THE BALTIC INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................................3 1. HIEROMARTYR BARSANUPHIUS, BISHOP OF KIRILLOV ................................................5 2. HIEROMARTYR NICON, ARCHBISHOP OF VOLOGDA ....................................................9 3. HIEROMARTYR PLATO, BISHOP OF REVEL (TALLINN).................................................11 4. HIEROMARTYR EUGENE, BISHOP OF OLONETS .............................................................16 5. HIEROMARTYR BENJAMIN, METROPOLITAN OF PETROGRAD .................................17 6. HIEROMARTYR BARNABAS, ARCHBISHOP OF ARCHANGELSK ................................31 7. HIEROMARTYR JOSEPH, BISHOP OF VALDAI ..................................................................32 8. HIEROMARTYR HIEROTHEUS, BISHOP OF VELIKY USTIUG ........................................33 9. HIEROCONFESSOR EUTHYMIUS, BISHOP OF OLONETS ...............................................53 10. HIEROCONFESSOR NICHOLAS, BISHOP OF VELSK ......................................................54 11. HIEROMARTYR ANTHONY, ARCHBISHOP OF ARCHANGELSK..............................55 12. HIEROCONFESSOR MACARIUS, BISHOP OF CHEREPOVETS .....................................61 13. HIEROCONFESSOR BARSANUPHIUS, BISHOP OF KARGOPOL ..................................63 14. HIEROMARTYR JOHN, ARCHBISHOP OF RIGA..............................................................65
    [Show full text]
  • The Government Inspector and Other Works Free
    FREE THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR AND OTHER WORKS PDF Nikolai Gogol,Dr. Keith Carabine,Constance Garnett,David Rampton | 592 pages | 14 Sep 2014 | Wordsworth Editions Ltd | 9781840227291 | English | Herts, United Kingdom Nikolai Gogol - The Government Inspector and Other Works | Sözcü Kitabevi Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Home Groups Talk More Zeitgeist. I Agree This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and if not signed in for advertising. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms. Members Reviews Popularity Average rating Conversations 15 None 1, 5 None Translated by Constance Garnett Notes and Introductions by David Rampton, Department of English, University of Ottawa Gogol's works constitute one of Russian literature's supreme achievements, yet the nature of their brilliant originality, comic The Government Inspector and Other Works, and complex workings is difficult The Government Inspector and Other Works summarize precisely. The Government Inspector, a perennial favourite on stage and screen, is considered a national institution in Russia, and Gogol's stories present us with one of the most marvellous worlds a writer has ever created. His quirky characters - the lowly official who imagines himself to be the King of Spain, the man committed to chase his nose around St. Petersburg, a whole village paralyzed at the prospect of being visited by an authority from the capital - are immortal. Although Gogol's fiction was commandeered by The Government Inspector and Other Works progressive critics as the work of an important social commentator, he was in many ways an arch-conservative, and there is a madcap strain in it that makes him a precursor of Kafka and absurdist drama.
    [Show full text]
  • Schubert Và Rất Nhiều Những Bản Nhạc Vượt Lên Trên Mọi Hàng Rào Ngôn Ngữ Khác?
    NHỮNG CA KHÚC NHẠC NGOẠI QUỐC LỜI VIỆT Tập Một HOÀI NAM (Biên Soạn) Trình Bày: T.Vấn Ấn Bản Điện Tử do T.Vấn & Bạn Hữu Thực Hiện ©Tủ Sách T.Vấn & Bạn Hữu 2017 ©Hoài Nam 2017 ■Tất cả những hình ảnh sử dụng trong bài đều chỉ nhằm mục đích minh họa và chúng hoàn toàn thuộc về quyền sở hữu theo luật quốc tế hiện hành của các tác giả hợp pháp của những hình ảnh này.■ Mục Lục Tựa 01-Dẫn Nhập 5 02- Fur Elise (Khi tình yêu tới) 17 03- Sérénade (Dạ Khúc ) 31 04- Tristesse (Nhạc buồn Chopin) 47 05- Célèbre Valse (Mối tình xa xƣa) 61 06- Blue Danube (Dòng Sông Xanh) 75 07- Waves of the Danube (Sóng Nƣớc Biếc) 86 08- Come Back to Sorrento (Trở về mái nhà xƣa) 91 09- Serenata (Chiều tà) 100 10- La Paloma (Cánh buồm xa xƣa) 108 11- La Cumparsita (Vũ nữ thân gầy) 123 12- Ole Guapa (Mộng Vàng) 136 13- Blue Tango (Tango Xanh) 143 14- Bésame Mucho (Yêu nhau đi) 152 15- Quizas (Qui Sait - Nào biết nào hay) 169 16- Cherry Pink (Cánh bƣớm vƣờn xuân) 176 17- Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves – Những chiếc lá úa) 186 18- La Vie en Rose (Cuộc đời hồng) 203 19- One Day (Khúc hát thanh xuân) 222 20- Sombre Dimanche (Chủ nhật buồn) 234 21- Donna Donna 245 22- Scarborough Fair (Giàn thiên lý đã xa) 257 23- Green Sleeves (Vai Áo Màu Xanh) 272 24- Those Were the Days (Tình ca du mục – Nhƣ lá thu vàng) 287 25- Moscow Nights (Chiều Mạc-tƣ-khoa) 310 26- Shina No Yoru (China Night – Chiều Tô Châu) 325 27- Meigui Megui Wo Ai Ni (Rose Rose I Love You – Cánh hồng Trung Quốc) 345 28- Tennessee Waltz (Điệu Luân Vũ Dang Dở) 365 1 | H o à i N a m TỰA Người yêu nhạc – dù mang bất cứ quốc tịch nào, có màu da màu tóc nào - lại không từng nghe và say mê những bản nhạc bất hủ như: Come back to Sorrento (Về mái nhà xưa), One Day, When we were young (Khúc hát thanh xuân), Fur Elise (Khi tình yêu tới), Ave Maria – Schubert và rất nhiều những bản nhạc vượt lên trên mọi hàng rào ngôn ngữ khác? Nghe đi nghe lại những bản nhạc hay, vẫn chưa đủ.
    [Show full text]
  • Theatre at Moscow Hermann Matern School: Performing Tradition, Educational Innovations, Perspectives on Artistic Activities
    PERFORMING ARTS IN THE SCHOOLS E‐ISSN 2237‐2660 Theatre at Moscow Hermann Matern School: performing tradition, educational innovations, perspectives on artistic activities Viktoria VolkovaI IFreie Universität Berlin – Berlin, Germany ABSTRACT – Theatre at Moscow Hermann Matern School: performing tradition, educational innovations, perspectives on artistic activities – The article describes the more than 45 years of history of theatrical tradition at Moscow Hermann Matern School as well as the transformation of this tradition into an educational innovation in the 1990s. An annual competition in theatrical performance called Theatre Week for Children has been held since the late 1970s for students from grades 1 to 11. However, since the mid-90s, some new educational forms based on this theatrical tradition have been introduced as an experiment in teaching humanities at this school. Alongside traditional educational forms, students have been encouraged to stage the elected material, mostly in the subjects of literature and foreign languages (German, English), but also in history. Keywords: Theatrical Tradition. Educational Innovation. Staging in Foreign Languages. Russian Literature. School Communities. RÉSUMÉ – Théâtre à l’École Hermann Matern de Moscou: tradition, innovations pédagogiques, perspectives sur les activités artistiques – L’article décrit les plus de 45 ans d’histoire de la tradition théâtrale à l’école Hermann Matern de Moscou ainsi que la transformation de cette tradition en une innovation éducative dans les années 1990. Un concours annuel de représentation théâtrale appelé Semaine Du Théâtre Pour Les Enfants a été organisé depuis la fin des années 1970 pour les élèves de la première à la onzième année. Cependant, depuis le milieu des années 90, de nouvelles formes éducatives basées sur cette tradition théâtrale ont été introduites comme une expérience d’enseignement des sciences humaines dans cette école.
    [Show full text]
  • GOGOLIAN SPATIAL MODELS and MANKIND's POTENTIAL for REDEMPTION: a COMPARISON of “THE CARRIAGE” and DEAD SOULS Maxwell O
    GOGOLIAN SPATIAL MOD ELS AND MANKIND’S PO TENTIAL FOR REDEMPTION: A COMPARISON OF “THE CARRIAGE” AND DEAD SOULS Maxwell O. Mason A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the req uirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Chapel Hill 2006 Approved by Advisor: Christopher Putney Reader: Beth Holmgren Reader: Ivana Vuletic ABSTRACT MAXWELL O. MASON: Gogolian Spatial Models and Mankind’s Potential for Redemption: A Comparison of “The Carriage” and Dead Souls (Under the direction of Christopher Putney) This analysis explores Nikolai Gogol’s utilization of spatial models in his short story “The Carr iage” and his epic novel Dead Souls in an attempt to deduce a connection between a character’s physical environment and his potential for redemption. These works are unique in that they reflect two distinct periods of a highly formative time in Gogol’s th eological development. “The Carriage,” the earlier published of the two, represents th is period’s point of departure, whereas Dead Souls conveys the output of Gogol’s complex journey. Employing the insight of Iurii Lotman, this study examines first the dominance of evil in the “static” environments of these two works and then its subordination to “boundless” space in Dead Souls . To replace his dominant model of evil even temporarily, though, Gogol was forced to extend his vision limitlessly, a task that w as ultimately more than he could bear. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page
    [Show full text]
  • CURRICULUM VITAE Maxim D. Shrayer Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Author and Literary Translator Department Of
    10/15/2020 CURRICULUM VITAE Maxim D. Shrayer Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Author and literary translator Department of Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies 210 Lyons Hall Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3804 USA tel. (617) 552-3911 fax. (617) 552-3913 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.shrayer.com https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/slavic-eastern/people/faculty- directory/maxim-d--shrayer.html @MaximDShrayer ================================================================== EDUCATION Yale University Ph.D., Russian Literature; minor in Film Studies 1992-1995 Yale University M.A., M.Phil., Russian Literature 1990-1992 Rutgers University M.A., Comparative Literature 1989-1990 Brown University B.A., Comparative Literature 1987-1989 Honors in Literary Translation Moscow University Transferred to Brown University upon 1984-1989 immigrating to the U.S.A. TEACHING EXPERIENCE Boston College Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Department of Eastern, courtesy appointment in the English Department since Slavic, and German Studies 2002 Faculty in the Jewish Studies Program since 2005 2003-present teaching Russian, Jewish, and Anglo-American literature, comparative literature, translation studies, and Holocaust studies, at the graduate and undergraduate levels Boston College Associate Professor (with tenure) Department of Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures 2000-2003 Boston College Assistant Professor Department of Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures 1996-2000 Connecticut College
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Study of the Literary Output of Nikolai Gogol
    The Aesthetics of Effacement: A Comparative Study of the Literary Output of Nikolai Gogol and Oscar Wilde PhD Thesis 2019 Brigit Katharine McCone Student no. 09129731 1 I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University’s open access institutional repository or allow the Library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. Signed ___________________________________________________ 2 SUMMARY This thesis marks the first comprehensive comparative study of the literary output of Nikolai Gogol and Oscar Wilde, from an intersectional perspective blending genre theory, queer theory, postcolonial theory and Jungian psychoanalysis, to examine the authors as sexually and ethnically closeted while estimating the impact of this closeting on their fiction. The thesis concludes that Nikolai Gogol and Oscar Wilde have significant parallels in their conception of the artistic process, explicable by a shared exposure anxiety, significant stylistic parallels, explicable by a shared imperative to generate interpretative suspense and facilitate plausibly deniable self-expression, and significant thematic parallels in their treatment of sexuality, ethnicity and identity, explicable by a shared experience of sexual and ethnic closeting. By establishing that all major sexual themes in the fiction of Nikolai Gogol have direct parallels in the fiction of Oscar Wilde, this thesis contributes to the contextualization of Gogol as a closeted writer, while proposing new aesthetic frameworks for the evaluation of Oscar Wilde. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am grateful for the advice and encouragement of my supervisor, Dr Sarah Smyth, of the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies of Trinity College Dublin, and my co-supervisor, Dr Paul Delaney of the School of English, and my two examiners Jarlath Killeen and Claire Whitehead.
    [Show full text]