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The Familiar Letter as a Literary Genre in the Age of Pushkin

The Familiar Letter as a Literary Genre in the Age of Pushkin

Studies in Russian Literature and Theory

by William Mills III Todd

Imprint: Northwestern University Press

230 Pages, 6.12 x 9.25 in

Paperback
9780810117112
Published: August 1999

$19.95

BUY

Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

In the field of Russian literary studies, there is surprisingly little discussion of independent genres and their effect on the creativity of an era. This important text on the quasi-public "friendly letter" of nineteenth-century Russia addresses this deficiency, examining the tradition of familiar letter writing that developed in the early 1800s among literary circles that included such luminaries as Pushkin, Karamzin, and Turgenev, and arguing that these letters constitute a distinct literary genre.

Transliteration
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. The Epistolary Tradition in Europe and Russia
II. Arzamas and Its Approach to Epistolary Tradition
III. Content: Principles of Selection
IV. Characterization and Caricature
V. Literary Criticism in the Letters of Arzamas
VI. Style and the Illusion of Conversational Speech
VII. Organizational Principles of the Familiar Letter
VIII. The Parts of a Letter: Openings and End Games
Conclusion
Afterword: Beyond the Familiar Letter

Appendix
I. The Arzamasians
II. N. I. Grech's Essay on Letter Writing

Bibliography
Index

William Mills Todd III is Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and professor of comparative literature at Harvard University. His books include Literature and Society in Imperial Russia: 1800-1914 and Fiction and Society in the Age of Pushkin. His articles address the theory of narrative, the sociology of literature, and nineteenth-century Russian literary culture.

"Light, sensitive and pleasantly in harmony with [the] gentle and civilized subject." --Modern Language Review

"Professor Todd's thoughtful inquiry into this engaging subject is a valuable addition to the scholarly literature on the Age of Pushkin. It is written with a clarity and grace which the Arzamasians themselves would have appreciated." --Russian Review