Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 - Humanities — Language & Literature — Germanic

The adjectives "holistic" and "magisterial" spring to mind when assessing the scope and coherence of this history of Russian literature from the medieval period to the present. In contrast to literary histories that foreground biographical entries on notable authors and masterpieces, chronological accounts of literary movements, or thematic approaches to selected texts, the present volume deploys a range of contextual lenses through which to examine Russian literature's dynamic discourse with political, geographic, poetic, and subjective currents. The editors achieve a balance of overview and detailed analysis, and the essays are in effect case studies on authors, works, and cultural phenomena. Subjects as diverse as the holy fool, dueling writers, imperial censorship, and writer/dissident Venedikt Erofeev are discussed in terms of overarching themes. Of particular importance to nonspecialists will be inclusion throughout of detailed definitions of key literary and historical terms. A section of color plates, along with black-and-white illustrations, afford welcome visual perspective. The bibliography and endnotes are exhaustive and have already served this reviewer's further investigations. This comprehensive, articulate history should prove invaluable to a broad readership.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Constantine's formidable translation of the first volume of Solzhenitsyn's memoir is a birth-centennial tribute to the great Russian writer. This autobiographical narrative relates Solzhenitsyn's literary and political tribulations after he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1973. Solzhenitsyn's plea to sustain humanitarian attitudes, and his views on democracy, reflect his Gulag experiences and the disinformation promulgated by the KGB in their attacks on him. In the fifth and final chapter, "Through the Fumes," and in the material cited in the 24 appendixes, Solzhenitsyn masterfully and with wit refutes these attacks in what can only be called a tour-de-force documentation of the facts of his life. Besides its being an obvious biographical treasure, this first volume is a brilliant revelation of Solzhenitsyn's thoughts, beliefs, poetic perceptions of nature, and indomitable spirit. Solzhenitsyn's work testifies to the problems that even intellectuals face in their efforts to escape persecution in their homeland. This memoir is a timely and propitious antidote to the current perplexing world situation, which is marked by the rise of neo-Nazism, international wars, criminal activities on the part of governments, and callous disregard for the law and constitutional traditions.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

In the conclusion to this lucid and informative volume, Janecek (emer., Univ. of Kentucky) writes that Moscow conceptualism "is the main manifestation of Russian postmodernism and the most significant movement in the arts of the later Soviet period." Since analogous artistic trends existed in the West, Janecek frames his analysis by outlining the similarities and differences between postmodernist experiments in the two worlds divided by the Iron Curtain. To simplify Janecek's argument greatly: Soviet artists exploited, as the primary material for their ludic artifacts, the omnipresent ideological signs their audience knew only too well. Each of the volume's four chapters centers on a leading artist: Vsevolod Nekrasov, Lev Rubinstein, Dimitry Prigov, and Andrei Monastyrsky. The first three were poets, so Janecek presents their texts (in English) to illustrate their respective poetics; Monastyrsky was a performing artist, so the author describes (sometimes in minute detail) Monastyrsky's "happenings." Janecek enlivens his narrative with voices of other artists, theoreticians, and witnesses, creating a vivid picture of artistic life in the USSR during the period of so-called zastoi (stagnation).Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.