Description
Book SynopsisIn the six essays of this book, Ksana Blank examines affinities among works of nineteenth and twentieth-century Russian literature and their connections to the visual arts and music. Blank demonstrates that the borders of authorial creativity are not stable and absolute, that talented artists often transcend the classifications and paradigms established by critics. Featured in the volume are works by Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Vladimir Nabokov, Daniil Kharms, Kazimir Malevich, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Trade Review“Taken as a whole, Spaces of Creativity: Essays on Russian Literature and the Arts reflects the creative and energetic mind of its author, Ksana Blank. In six discrete essays—four of which have been published previously in earlier iterations—Blank celebrates what she calls the ‘affinities’ between classic works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Russian literature, music, visual arts, and religious philosophy. In seeking these moments of productive resonance, she boldly abandons the conventional boundaries of historical periodization, just as she does the space across media and disciplines, in order to make visible the fascinating, and often quite unexpected lines of influence and confluence between her primary subjects and their works.“ —Molly Brunson, Yale University, Slavic and East European Journal
Table of ContentsPreface
Chapter 1. Sex, Crime, and Railroads in Dostoevsky’s Idiot and Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata
Chapter 2. “Horror—Red, White, and Square”: Abstract Images in Tolstoy
Chapter 3. Dobuzhinsky’s Farewell to Petersburg
Chapter 4. Praising the Name: The Religious Theme in Daniil Kharms
Chapter 5. Nabokov’s Nymphet and Pushkin’s Water-Nymph
Chapter 6. Captain Lebyadkin’s Poetry in Shostakovich and Dostoevsky
