Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 Books
Academic Studies Press Essays on Anton P. Chekhov: Close Readings
Book SynopsisThis long awaited collection brings together in one volume the definitive essays on Anton Chekhov by renowned Chekhov scholar Robert Louis Jackson, including work that has never appeared in English as well as brand new essays published here for the first time. The volume offers a series of “slow” readings that yield insight after exquisite insight. They also model fruitful ways of discerning the rich complexity of Chekhov’s deceptively simple work. The volume’s introduction by Robin Feuer Miller captures beautifully what Jackson undertakes in his careful scrutiny of Chekhov’s text. The editor’s afterword by Cathy Popkin includes passages from the editorial correspondence in which Jackson reflects on his work and articulates his aspirations; the authorial voice thus resounds in the section Jackson expected to write himself. The editor also outlines the arguments and insights of Jackson’s remarkable unfinished essays. Finally, an appendix provides the full text of his virtually complete but still open-ended treatment of “On Official Business,” the story Jackson returned to repeatedly for decades, the previously unpublished culmination of his life’s work on Chekhov. Essays on Anton P. Chekhov: Close Readings is fully accessible to readers without knowledge of Russian while also providing complete documentation for scholars in the field.Trade Review“A virtuoso performance by the maestro of Russian literary criticism. This lovingly edited and produced volume, itself a conversation, tells the story of Professor Jackson’s lifelong engagement with the great short-story master. These close readings, many of which will be new even to scholars, focus in on the microscopic elements of a text—the sounds and roots of individual words—and lead from there along inexorable, but previously unnoticed paths to the big questions of justice and faith, good and evil, fate and conscience. Along the way, we realize that Chekhov, too, was in conversation with masters—with the Bible, with Dante, with writers of his time, most notably Dostoevsky, and with others who were to come after. These seemingly disparate essays themselves add up to a majestic, and yet uniquely accessible, body of work. Riches emerge when reader meets text, slows down, and gives it the attention it deserves. It turns out that to understand this, we needed a teacher.”— Carol Apollonio, Duke University“Over twenty years ago, Janet Malcolm assessed that Robert Louis Jackson's ‘writing and teaching on the religious subtext in Chekhov's stories have inspired a generation of younger critics.’ With this volume of exquisitely written, penetrating studies—many of which previously appeared in inaccessible venues or in languages other than English, and one that was not quite finished—Jackson's profound influence on the field will endure. In editing Jackson’s work and ushering it to publication, Cathy Popkin has repaid that younger generation's debt, to the benefit of us all.”— Michael Finke, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignTable of ContentsIntroduction Robin Feuer Miller Editor’s NoteCathy Popkin On Chekhov’s ArtChekhov’s Seagull: The Empty Well, the Dry Lake, and the Cold Cave“If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem”: An Essay on Chekhov’s “Rothschild’s Fiddle”Dostoevsky in Chekhov’s Garden of Eden: “Because of Little Apples”“The Betrothed”: Chekhov’s Last TestamentChekhov and Proust: A Posing of the Problem“The Steppe”: Space and the Journey. A Metaphor for All Times“The Enemies”: A Story at War with ItselfChekhov’s “The Student”The Ethics of Vision: The Punishment of the Tramp Prokhorov in The Island of SakhalinDantesque and Dostoevskian Elements in Chekhov’s “In Exile”Biblical and Literary Allusions in Chekhov’s “Gusev”Russian Man at the Rendezvous: The Narrator in Chekhov’s “A Little Joke”“Small Fry”: A Nice Little Easter StoryChekhov’s “Rothschild’s Fiddle”: “By the Waters of Babylon” in Eastern Orthodox LiturgyThree Deaths: A Boy, A Goose, and an InfantA Fragment from the Aggregate: Sinai and Sakhalin in Chekhov’s Letters to Suvorin“Grief”: Once Again about the Ending of the StoryDogs: Text and Subtext in “Lady with a Pet Dog”Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” and Gurov’s Oreanda Meditations in Chekhov’s “Lady with a Pet Dog” Afterword Cathy Popkin Appendix: Robert Louis Jackson on “Po delam sluzhby” [“On Official Business”]Index
£89.09
Academic Studies Press The Pushkin Project: Russia's Favorite Writer,
Book Synopsis“Bethea’s book conveys the story of an amazingly ambitious attempt to preserve the humanities while also saving the future of disadvantaged high school students in Chicago. … Highly recommended.” — Library Journal (starred review)The Pushkin Project tells the story of how a Russian studies professor changes course late in his career by reeducating himself in evolutionary thought and founding a summer institute that partners with inner-city high schools to implement a new set of learning strategies for underserved youth.These “cognitive cross-training” strategies involve introducing students from Hispanic and Black neighborhoods in the west and south sides of Chicago to the Russian culture and language, with an emphasis on poet, playwright, and novelist Alexander Pushkin. Through the lens of modern evolutionary thought, students adopt not only a new and different language and culture, but also a different sort of literary hero, one whose African heritage within the majority culture speaks to them directly. This inspiring and compelling story provides fascinating insights into Russia's national poet, brings the sciences and humanities together, and provides new directions in teaching young people from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.Trade Review“The Pushkin Project is both an inspiring memoir of Bethea’s work building an educational program for children from underprivileged communities and a remarkable essay on literature and evolutionary thought. At the center of it all are Bethea’s captivating readings of Pushkin’s classic works, in the form of lesson plans that will be useful to educators in any high school or university. Written in an engaging manner, probing deep questions of cultural history and educational philosophy, this is a book that effortlessly and gracefully appeals to multiple audiences.”— Kevin M. F. Platt, Professor of Comparative Literature and Russian and East European Studies, The University of Pennsylvania“A brilliant, multifaceted, and completely original book about how a distinguished professor of Russian literature decided to retool his pedagogy in accordance with the latest findings in evolutionary and cognitive science to teach Russian language and literature to underserved, minority, inner-city high school students. Bethea’s generous goal was to allow them to have the same powerful, life-altering experience he did when he learned Russian—a language with which he had been completely unfamiliar—and discovered that it revealed a new world and ‘added a different gear’ to his brain. In light of today’s debates about ‘cultural appropriation,’ the decade-long success of Bethea’s initiative is especially noteworthy because it demonstrates the necessity of deep engagement with cultural alterity to achieve optimal personal growth. Part memoir, part bridge between Snow’s ‘two cultures,’ part paean to the enduring genius of Russia’s national writer, Alexander Pushkin, this is an essential book for our times.”— Vladimir Alexandrov, B. E. Bensinger Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University“A fascinating account of how, in teaching Pushkin, one might also teach students to think about citizenship, risk, evolutionary neuroscience, and language itself. Exemplary readings of major texts are embedded in this book, which is pedagogical in multiple ways. I envy David Bethea the chance to have learned so much from students in the Pushkin Project.”— Stephanie Sandler, Harvard University“This book is testimony to an astonishing hybrid. On one side Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s foundational poet of genius and an octoroon; on the other, an American professor and born teacher who devotes a decade of his life to making Russian culture inspirational for young people from minority backgrounds. Prompted by creative visions as vast as those of Charles Darwin and Iain McGilchrist, all the while urging us on with his trademark faith in ‘co-evolutionary spirals’ that pit literature against despair, David Bethea, in this very bad time for our Russian brand, has given us a moving memoir of poetry, sociobiology, civic conscience, and pastoral care.”— Caryl Emerson, Princeton University“David Bethea has combined his love of Pushkin and the Russian language with his knowledge of evolutionary biology and his deep reading in other areas to devise an educational project unlike any other. The Pushkin project is unique and is dedicated to helping Black and Brown teenagers learn about another language, another culture, and a different way of seeing the world. I highly recommend it.”— Henry L. Roediger, III Professor of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning“Such a lucid and immersive narrative about a most improbable and imaginative project! I learned so much about Pushkin and inner-city culture, and the evolutionary drumbeat resonated throughout. Bravo to David Bethea, his adventurous students, and their fascinating encounters with poetry and transcendence.”— Ursula Goodenough, Washington University; author of The Sacred Depths of Nature: How Life Has Emerged and Evolved“This book is the best news for the field. It mixes eye-opening readings of Pushkin through the lens of evolutionary biology with something that is constantly, but I dare say especially currently, much in demand: a sense of purpose. In engaging and subtle prose, Bethea tells the story of the experience teaching Pushkin to students from Black and Brown communities, and in doing so, reminds us that the opportunity to turn our studies into something meaningful—not just for us but also for the people around us—is always at hand.”— Daria Khitrova, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsPreface1. Origins2. PSI: Implementation3. “The Shot”: Role-Playing with Loaded Pistols4. “The Stationmaster”: Morality Meets Sexual Selection5. The Blackamoor of Peter the Great: Identity, Creativity, Homecoming6. “The Queen of Spades”: Risk, Reward, Gaming LifeAfterword: The Students RespondAppendix: The PSI QuestionnaireWorks CitedEndnotes
£89.09
Academic Studies Press The Pushkin Project: Darwin, Diversity, and A
Book Synopsis“Bethea’s book conveys the story of an amazingly ambitious attempt to preserve the humanities while also saving the future of disadvantaged high school students in Chicago. … Highly recommended.” — Library Journal (starred review)The Pushkin Project tells the story of how a Russian studies professor changes course late in his career by reeducating himself in evolutionary thought and founding a summer institute that partners with inner-city high schools to implement a new set of learning strategies for underserved youth.These “cognitive cross-training” strategies involve introducing students from Hispanic and Black neighborhoods in the west and south sides of Chicago to the Russian culture and language, with an emphasis on poet, playwright, and novelist Alexander Pushkin. Through the lens of modern evolutionary thought, students adopt not only a new and different language and culture, but also a different sort of literary hero, one whose African heritage within the majority culture speaks to them directly. This inspiring and compelling story provides fascinating insights into Russia's national poet, brings the sciences and humanities together, and provides new directions in teaching young people from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.Trade Review“The Pushkin Project is both an inspiring memoir of Bethea’s work building an educational program for children from underprivileged communities and a remarkable essay on literature and evolutionary thought. At the center of it all are Bethea’s captivating readings of Pushkin’s classic works, in the form of lesson plans that will be useful to educators in any high school or university. Written in an engaging manner, probing deep questions of cultural history and educational philosophy, this is a book that effortlessly and gracefully appeals to multiple audiences.” — Kevin M. F. Platt, Professor of Comparative Literature and Russian and East European Studies, The University of Pennsylvania “A brilliant, multifaceted, and completely original book about how a distinguished professor of Russian literature decided to retool his pedagogy in accordance with the latest findings in evolutionary and cognitive science to teach Russian language and literature to underserved, minority, inner-city high school students. Bethea’s generous goal was to allow them to have the same powerful, life-altering experience he did when he learned Russian—a language with which he had been completely unfamiliar—and discovered that it revealed a new world and ‘added a different gear’ to his brain. In light of today’s debates about ‘cultural appropriation,’ the decade-long success of Bethea’s initiative is especially noteworthy because it demonstrates the necessity of deep engagement with cultural alterity to achieve optimal personal growth. Part memoir, part bridge between Snow’s ‘two cultures,’ part paean to the enduring genius of Russia’s national writer, Alexander Pushkin, this is an essential book for our times.” — Vladimir Alexandrov, B. E. Bensinger Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University “A fascinating account of how, in teaching Pushkin, one might also teach students to think about citizenship, risk, evolutionary neuroscience, and language itself. Exemplary readings of major texts are embedded in this book, which is pedagogical in multiple ways. I envy David Bethea the chance to have learned so much from students in the Pushkin Project.” — Stephanie Sandler, Harvard University “This book is testimony to an astonishing hybrid. On one side Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s foundational poet of genius and an octoroon; on the other, an American professor and born teacher who devotes a decade of his life to making Russian culture inspirational for young people from minority backgrounds. Prompted by creative visions as vast as those of Charles Darwin and Iain McGilchrist, all the while urging us on with his trademark faith in ‘co-evolutionary spirals’ that pit literature against despair, David Bethea, in this very bad time for our Russian brand, has given us a moving memoir of poetry, sociobiology, civic conscience, and pastoral care.” — Caryl Emerson, Princeton University “David Bethea has combined his love of Pushkin and the Russian language with his knowledge of evolutionary biology and his deep reading in other areas to devise an educational project unlike any other. The Pushkin project is unique and is dedicated to helping Black and Brown teenagers learn about another language, another culture, and a different way of seeing the world. I highly recommend it.” — Henry L. Roediger, III Professor of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning “Such a lucid and immersive narrative about a most improbable and imaginative project! I learned so much about Pushkin and inner-city culture, and the evolutionary drumbeat resonated throughout. Bravo to David Bethea, his adventurous students, and their fascinating encounters with poetry and transcendence.” — Ursula Goodenough, Washington University; author of The Sacred Depths of Nature: How Life Has Emerged and Evolved “This book is the best news for the field. It mixes eye-opening readings of Pushkin through the lens of evolutionary biology with something that is constantly, but I dare say especially currently, much in demand: a sense of purpose. In engaging and subtle prose, Bethea tells the story of the experience teaching Pushkin to students from Black and Brown communities, and in doing so, reminds us that the opportunity to turn our studies into something meaningful—not just for us but also for the people around us—is always at hand.” — Daria Khitrova, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsPreface1. Origins2. PSI: Implementation3. “The Shot”: Role-Playing with Loaded Pistols4. “The Stationmaster”: Morality Meets Sexual Selection5. The Blackamoor of Peter the Great: Identity, Creativity, Homecoming6. “The Queen of Spades”: Risk, Reward, Gaming LifeAfterword: The Students RespondAppendix: The PSI QuestionnaireWorks CitedEndnotes
£17.09
Academic Studies Press Der erniedrigte Christus: Metaphern und
Book SynopsisENThis three-volume book investigates the Russian transformations of one of the central concepts of Greek Christology, the self-humiliation or kenosis of Christ. The author applies rhetoric (paradox, metaphor, metonymy) as a means to elucidate mechanisms of theological persuasion and to trace the representations of the humiliated Christ and his imitations in various media from liturgy and iconology to everyday practice and literary fiction. The exploration of post-Christian literature of the 19th and 20th century (N. Chernyshevskii, M. Gor’kii, N. Ostrovskii, Ven. Erofeev, Vl. Sorokin) demonstrates the existence of a kenotic Christology after Christianity.RUThis three-volume book investigates the Russian transformations of one of the central concepts of Greek Christology, the self-humiliation or kenosis of Christ. The author applies rhetoric (paradox, metaphor, metonymy) as a means to elucidate mechanisms of theological persuasion and to trace the representations of the humiliated Christ and his imitations in various media from liturgy and iconology to everyday practice and literary fiction. The exploration of post-Christian literature of the 19th and 20th century (N. Chernyshevskii, M. Gor’kii, N. Ostrovskii, Ven. Erofeev, Vl. Sorokin) demonstrates the existence of a kenotic Christology after Christianity.
£28.30
