Description
Book SynopsisVladimir E. Alexandrov advocates a broad revision of the academic study of literature, proposing an adaptive, text-specific approach designed to minimize the circularity of interpretation inherent in the act of reading. He illustrates this method with the example of Tolstoy's classic novel,
Anna Karenina, via a detailed “map” of the different possible readings that the novel can support.
Trade ReviewA major contribution to Tolstoy studies. ... Essential."" -
Choice""I find this book particularly attractive because it is rooted in formalist and structuralist theory, skeptical about both the premises and the results of much (especially American) later criticism, and respectful of the text of Anna Karenina."" -
Slavic Review""Alexandrov does not insist on the resolution of the novel's basic contradictions but leaves it to his reader what to make of Anna Karenina: a work whose tumult of meanings ultimately undoes it or makes it mysterious and rich, like life."" -
Modern Philology
