{"product_id":"who-what-am-i-9780801453342","title":"Who What Am I","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eGod only knows how many diverse, captivating impressions and thoughts evoked by these impressions... pass in a single day. If it were only possible to render them in such a way that I could easily read myself and that others could read me as I do... Such was the desire of the young Tolstoy. Although he knew that this narrative utopiaturning the totality of his life into a bookwould remain unfulfilled, Tolstoy would spend the rest of his life attempting to achieve it. \u003ci\u003eWho, What Am I?\u003c\/i\u003e is an account of Tolstoy''s lifelong attempt to find adequate ways to represent the self, to probe its limits and, ultimately, to arrive at an identity not based on the bodily self and its accumulated life experience.This book guides readers through the voluminous, highly personal nonfiction writings that Tolstoy produced from the 1850s until his death in 1910. The variety of these texts is enormous, including diaries, religious tracts, personal confessions, letters, autobiographical fragments, an\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOffers a rare exploration into the internal world of Tolstoy by examining his nonfictional, first-person writings, including diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, and essays.... Paperno makes an invaluable contribution to Tolstoy scholarship.\u003c\/p\u003e -- R. A. Erb * CHOICE *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003ePaperno reads all his [Tolstoy’s] writings in relation to the central project of his life: the transformation of his life into a book that would teach others how to live.... ‘\u003ci\u003eWho, What Am I?’ \u003c\/i\u003eis an important book that will become a standard source for students, general readers and scholars alike.\u003c\/p\u003e * SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003ePaperno deftly shows how Tolstoi's attempt to write an autobiography failed, but his perceived failure at capturing the moral, philosophical, and technical issues accurately becomes a testament to his literary honesty (102). \"\u003ci\u003eWho, What Am I?\u003c\/i\u003e\" is highly important for any Tolstoi researcher, as it brings together the whole of his writings dealing with the exploration of the self.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Radha Balasubramanian * Slavic Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a relatively short book, yet it is rich in content, taking on some of the most important and challenging problems Tolstoy faced as a writer and thinker. [Irina Paperno] draws on a full range of Tolstoy's nonfiction writings from the 1850s until his death in 1910: diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, essays, and religious tracts. In addition, her book is informed by vast reading in other sources, primary and secondary.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Randall A. Poole * The Russian Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChapter 1. \"So That I Could Easily Read Myself\": Tolstoy's Early Diaries\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTolstoy Starts a Diary—The Moral Vision of Self and the Temporal Order of Narrative—What Is Time? Cultural Precedents—“A History of Yesterday”— Time and Narrative—The Dream: The Hidden Recesses of Time—What Am I? The Young Tolstoy Defines Himself—What Am I? Cultural Precedents\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInterlude: Between Personal Documents and Fiction\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom Diaries to \u003cem\u003eChildhood\u003c\/em\u003e: Tolstoy Becomes a Writer (1852)—“I Think I Will Never Write Again”: Tolstoy Attempts to Renounce Literature (1859)—“I . . . Don’t Even Think about the Accursed Lit-t-terature and \u003cem\u003eLit-t-terateurs\u003c\/em\u003e”: Tolstoy Renounces Literature Again (1870); and Again (1874–75)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChapter 2. “To Tell One’s Faith Is Impossible. . . . How to Tell That Which I Live By. I’ll Tell You, All the Same. . . .” Tolstoy in His Correspondence\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“What Is My Life? What Am I?”: Tolstoy’s Philosophical Dialogue with Nikolai Strakhov—“I Wish that You, Instead of Reading \u003cem\u003eAnna Kar\u003c\/em\u003e [ \u003cem\u003eenina\u003c\/em\u003e ], Would Finish It. . . .”—“In the Form of Catechism,” “In the Form of a Dialogue”—To Tell One’s Life—Rousseau and His Profession\/Confession—The Parting of Ways: Tolstoy Writes His \u003cem\u003eConfession\u003c\/em\u003e, and Strakhov Continues to Confess in His Letters to Tolstoy\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChapter 3. Tolstoy’s Confession : What Am I?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTolstoy Publishes his \u003cem\u003eConfession\u003c\/em\u003e—The Conversion Narrative: Excursus on the Genre—Tolstoy’s \u003cem\u003eConfession\u003c\/em\u003e : Step by Step—Tolstoy’s \u003cem\u003eConfession\u003c\/em\u003e Related to Rousseau’s and Augustine’s—After \u003cem\u003eConfession\u003c\/em\u003e: “Presenting Christ’s Teaching as Something New after 1,800 Years of Christianity”—Coda: Tolstoy’s Influence\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChapter 4. “To Write My Life ”: Tolstoy Tries, and Fails, to Produce a Memoir or Autobiography\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Author Biography—“My Life”: “On the Basis of My Own Memories”—“Reminiscences”: “More Useful Than All That Artistic Prattle with Which the Twelve Volumes of My Works Are Filled”—“Reminiscences”: “I Cannot Provide a Coherent Description of Events and States of Mind”—“The Green Stick”: “\u003cem\u003eOù Suis-Je? Pourquoi Suis-Je? Que Suis-Je?\u003c\/em\u003e”—Tolstoy and the Autobiographical Tradition\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChapter 5. “What Should We Do Then?”: Tolstoy on Self and Other\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Why Have You, a Man from a Different World, Stopped near Us? Who Are You?”—Master and Slave: Tolstoy Rewrites Hegel—Tolstoy and the Washerwoman—The Order of Things: The Church, the State, the Arts and Sciences—“Master and Man”—Coda: Nonparticipation in Evil\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChapter 6. “I Felt a Completely New Liberation from Personality”: Tolstoy’s Late Diaries\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTolstoy Resumes his Diary—The Temporal Order of Narrative: The Last Day—“On Life and Death ”—The Diary as a Spiritual Exercise—“I, the Body, Is Such a Disgusting Chamber Pot”—“I Am Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself. . . .”—“I Have Lost the Memory of Everything, Almost Everything. . . . How Can One Not Rejoice at the Loss of Memory?”—Sleeping, Dreaming, and Awakening—Tolstoy’s Dreams—Dreams: The World beyond Time and Representation—The Book of life: “It Is Written on Time”—\u003cem\u003eThe Circle of Reading\u003c\/em\u003e: “To Replace the Consciousness of Leo Tolstoy with the Consciousness of All Humankind”—“The Death of Socrates”—Tolstoy’s Death\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAppendix: \u003c\/em\u003eRussian Quotations\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49405142335831,"sku":"9780801453342","price":33.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780801453342.jpg?v=1730488861","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/who-what-am-i-9780801453342","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}