Table of Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Chronology vii
Introduction: Labyrinth of Links: Russian Literature and its Cultural Contexts 1
1 The Origins: Russian Medieval Culture 7
2 The Spirit of Peter: Russian Culture in the Eighteenth Century 31
3 The Spirit of Poetry: Russian Culture in the Age of Alexander I (1801–25) 57
4 The Russian Idea: The Quest for National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Russian Culture 89
5 Russian Psychology: The Quest for Personal Identity in Nineteenth-Century Russian Culture 125
6 Life as Theatre: Russian Modernism 157
7 The Art of the Future: The Russian Avant-Garde 182
8 The Future as Present: Soviet Culture 204
9 After the Future: Russian Thaw Culture 233
10 Instead of the Apocalypse: Russian Culture Today 261
Conclusion: Whither Russian Literature 285
Notes 294
Bibliography 302
Index 308