Description
Book SynopsisThe Vortex That Unites Us is a study of totality in Russian literature, from the foundation of the modern Russian state to the present day. Considering a diversity of texts that have in common chiefly their prominence in the Russian literary canon, Jacob Emery examines the persistent ambition in Russian literature to gather the whole world into an artwork. Emery reveals how the diversity of totalizing figures in the Russian canonoften in alliance with ideologies like the totalitarian state or enlightenment reasonstrive for the frontiers of space and time in order to guarantee the coherence of the globe and the continuity of history. He expores subjects like romantic metaphors of supernatural possession; Tolstoy''s conception of art as a vector of emotional contagion; the panoramic ambitions of the avant-garde to grasp the globe in a new poetic medium; efforts of Soviet utopians to harmonize the whole of social life along aesthetic lines; Mandelstam''s evocation
Trade Review
Indeed, while the aesthetic visions analyzed in the book aim for closure, Emery dwells in their details and ambiguities, offering terrific insights into numerous texts.
* The Russian Review *
thought-provoking.erudite.Emery's core contention that Russian culture is a continuum of totalizing aesthetic and ideological tendencies is persuasive.
* TLS *
Thought-provoking and erudite, Emery's core contention that Russian culture is a continuum of totalizing aesthetic and ideological tendencies is persuasive.
* Times Literary Supplement *
