Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

Taking for his title a line from one of Boris Chichibabin's poems, "you, soaked the blood of others" (cited on p. 138), Finnin (Ukrainian studies, Univ. of Cambridge, UK) has written an erudite, sensitive, deeply scholarly analysis of Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar, Russian, and Turkish poetry, prose, and films that expose Stalin's annihilation of Crimean Tatars. Finnin highlights the connections forged as a result of suffering among Indigenous peoples of Crimea. The Bakhchysarai Fountain--a thread reverberating throughout Finnin's brilliant, detailed examination of other poets' words--affirms Finnin's belief that the literary modeling and processing of feelings is a formidable weapon against "imperial desires and deeds [of tyrants: Peter the Great, Catherine, Stalin, and currently Putin] because it evokes guilt, not shame, as it employs ... generic strategies and conventions ... figures of speech and rhetorical devices" through which arise solidarity of feelings within ethnically divergent victims" (p. 198). Finnin's work is both welcome and timely in view of the atrocities Russia is currently inflicting on Ukraine, atrocities born of Putin's false historical perceptions and imperialistic longings. Including detailed notes and a coda, this captivating, informative, compelling work elucidates the many nuances of the current situation in Ukraine for the benefit of those who would like to comprehend the incomprehensible.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

In Dostoevsky's Provocateurs, Patyk (Dartmouth) puts her finger on an aspect of Dostoevsky's artistic "macrostrategy" that many readers have noticed but few have contemplated in such revelatory detail. The recurring, almost ubiquitous presence of the provocateur across the novels is at the very core of his message and is a key to understanding his apologetics. As Patyk writes in the introduction, these literary provocateurs emerge seemingly from nowhere, and act "obliquely, not directly, by addressing themselves to others and making them (re)act." For Dostoevsky, provocation suggests a communicative tactic that becomes a strategy, one that functions across many focal points, including the cultural, political, and theological. Patyk breaks new ground when explaining that a study of Dostoevsky's provocateurs reveals the "provocative wiring of modernity itself." From this perspective, Patyk writes, it is ultimately the provocateurs "who determine ... the modern self and its relation to the other, as well as to the power structures that systematically reify and reinforce this self-other relationship." Writings covered include The Double, Notes from Underground, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. Throughout the author engages critics like Bakhtin in ways that are fascinating and, perhaps, more than a little provocative.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

Nabokov Noir provides an engaging and stimulating look at one of the most important writers of the 20th century. Parker (Russian, visiting faculty, Amherst College) argues that Vladimir Nabokov's connections to US and European film industries illuminates his experience in exile. Parker pays special attention to Nabokov's time in Berlin in 1920s, when the city was the capital of Russian emigre culture. Going to the movies brought exiles into contact with the countries that welcomed them. Parker then compares the various editions and translations of Nabokov's works, praising Laughter in the Dark as particularly intriguing in that it reflects Nabokov's hope for a film version. In the conclusion Parker explores Nabokov's ideas about cinema, film audiences, and literature, in so doing dismantling the myth of elitism that tarnishes Nabokov reputation. Published at an especially relevant time--given current displacement due to the war in Ukraine--this well-researched book is a fascinating analysis of the Russian-language diaspora.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species had a profound impact when published 1859, and it continues to influence scientific and cultural matters today. This thoughtful collection of essays explores the cultural effect of Darwin's ideas in imperial Russia. Essays address the challenges of translating Darwin's terminology into Russian and the varying interpretations of his concepts of "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest." One essay examines how Darwin's ideas were viewed in Russian scientific circles subject to the prevailing doctrines of positivism; several essays examine literary rejoinders to Darwin (from Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Chernyshevsky, Chekov, and less-known writers), which either attacked his ideas or sought to integrate them into popular literary works. There are considerations of the reactions of conservatives and traditionalists who blamed Darwin for the social disruption of the 1860s and 1870s, which saw emancipation of the serfs, the expansion of women's education, and the nihilist movements. For these writers, the European modernity associated with Darwin's concepts threatened to undermine Russian nationalist identity and traditional values and needed to be challenged. Insightful and deeply informative, this collection sheds light on important intellectual developments in 19th-century Russia.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

In the introduction to this unusual book, Safran (Stanford) writes that it is about "writers in the mid-nineteenth-century Russian Empire listening attentively to, recording, and repeating the words of others unlike themselves." Safran explains that the purpose of such listening was often to further efforts to liberate the serfs. That said, those who listened--both writers and critics--understood that their listening and recording was very likely inaccurate for a variety of reasons, for example, misunderstanding of context, unsympathetic interpretations, or lack of clarity and honesty on the part of the speakers themselves. Safran examines a wide variety of writing by a wide range of authors--including such literary figures as Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Vladimir Dahl--in chapters devoted to ringing, singing, nesting, crossing, paper making, dreaming, insulting, and laughing. Safran's excellent research and analyses on topics ranging from the significance of ringing bells, the impact of affordable paper, and the act of listening as performance art result in a fascinating look at how media, technology, and human imagination worked together to move the educated elites and the common people of 19th-century Russia toward greater understanding of each other. The book helps to reframe and clarify understanding of social change in the period.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.