Description
Book SynopsisThis study shows how four famous Jews writing in Russian in the early Soviet period attempted to resolve the conflict between their cultural identity and their place in Revolutionary Russia. Babel, Mandelstam, Pasternak and Ehrenburg struggled to form creative selves out of the contradictions of origins, outlook, and social or ideological pressures.
Trade Review"Sicher's erudition and analysis of the visual arts are excellent....In summarizing the arguments and reconsidering them from the viewpoint of these writers' Jewish identity, Sicher has done a valuable service. For those who know a lot about Russian-Jewish literature, but even for novices, this book is well woth reading." Nationalities Papers
"...an erudite and wide-ranging study. Cambridge University Press should be commended for reissuing it." --The Russian Review
Table of ContentsList of illustrations; Preface; 1. Burning embers; 2. Modernist responses to war and revolution: the Jewish Jesus; 3. The Jewishness of Babel; 4. The 'colour' of Judaism: Osip Mandelstam's Noise of Time; 5. The Father, the Son and holy Russia: Boris Pasternak, Hermann Cohen and the religion of Doctor Zhivago; 6. Ilia Ehrenburg: the eternal chameleon; Epilogue: hope betrayed; Notes; Index.
