Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #053

by Catriona Kelly

Rather than presenting a conventional chronology of Russian literature, Russian A Very Short Introduction explores the place and importance in Russian culture of all types of literature. How and when did a Russian national literature come into being? What shaped its creation? How have the Russians regarded their literary language? The book uses the figure of Pushkin--'the Russian Shakespeare'--as a recurring example, as his work influenced every Russian writer who came after him, whether they wrote prose or verse. It furthermore examines why Russian writers are venerated, how they've been interpreted inside Russia and beyond, and the influences of the folk tale tradition, orthodox religion, and the West.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature, Russia, Russian Literature, History, Literary Criticism, Criticism

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 2001

Reviews

[Daniel Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Around the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, during the (reputed) surge of literary activity called the Enlightenment, a number of English intellectuals, notably Samuel Johnson, promoted their national author around the world. William Shakespeare, they said, is the greatest poet and writer in any language who has ever lived.

Whether they were right or not, there were a number of people abroad who agreed with them. But they had a problem. How could speakers of other languages engage with so great a genius? How should new and burgeoning nation states define themselves, when the greatest writer was already taken?

The answer was, that they needed their own national writers to emulate or even challenge Shakespeare. So they looked, and they found. In the case of the Germans, they found Goethe (who himself produced highly regarded translations of Shakespeare). In the case of the Russians, they found Pushkin.

In Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction, Catriona Kelly, a professor at Oxford University, starts with Pushkin, considered the founding dynast of Russian literature (indeed, it is hard to find any notable Russian authors who preceded him). After a customary lament over his un-translatability, she takes one poem, Monument, in which the poet satirizes physical monuments to long-dead heroes and builds a verbal monument to himself. She produces a highly literal translation of it, then takes a handful of lines from as chapter headings, to thematically gather her material into some informative vignettes.

In her preface, Professor Kelly discusses the various more conventional ways to write such an introduction to such a large subject, and says she will attempt to mimic the first book in the series, Classics, in formatting it thus. I have to say that I personally found that method rather unhelpful, and moreover, Professor Kelly fails to do it with quite the same wit and grace as Henderson and Beard. Her chapters, although not long in themselves, are not (as is usual for the series) divided into sections, so the divisions are not quite as digestible as they should be. Her prose is rather dense and high-level. I discovered that it can be understood well if one is willing to go over it carefully in a way I am afraid I lack the time for.

When producing a survey of Russian literature, one would expect something of a catalogue of all the famous authors we have all heard of, in the manner of Sirach's 'let us now praise famous men': Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Pasternak and so on. Professor Kelly specifically eschews this approach, preferring her thematic one. While this is all very well - all of these authors are certainly alluded to frequently - the problem is that in the absence of chronology one loses any sense of the development and the underlying history, both political and cultural, leaving the reader asking what she has actually learnt at the end of it. Indeed one ought to realise that when there is such a stereotype for an introduction, there may be a reason for it, which in this case is that each author in turn has defined themselves in the framework set by his predecessors, and this is especially the case for this list of famous Russians, who stand so much in the shadow of each other, and of Tolstoy and Pushkin in particular.

The book's biggest failing, though, is certainly that Professor Kelly does not achieve her stated aim: that of inciting in the reader her own passion for the subject. There may be any number of reasons for this, chiefly that the tone is rather more dry and academic than one might hope of a book for popular consumption. I, at any rate, was no more enthused at the end than at the beginning - although, to be fair, my own forays into Russian literature (War and Peace, Crime and Punishment) have already given me an interest.

All that said, any reader who is willing to give over the effort of concentration will find this book useful and perhaps even entertaining. I will leave you with one thing that amused me. There is a late Soviet cartoon in which two Russian authors are talking to each other. One is saying to the other, 'I have a good idea for a short story,' to which the other replies, 'Well write it down then!' and the first answers: 'Well I can't, because I can't work out a way of making it into a long book...'

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can regard an introduction as being just that - a whistle stop tour of some high points in Russian literature with a bit of an overview of its development - or you can take Catriona Kelly's approach and use one writer (in this case Pushkin) as a case study and springboard to discuss a sprinkling of some of the main themes. Given that I've always wanted someone to explain Pushkin's primacy in Russian letters to me, this does not necessarily pose a problem. That said, there's a feeling after reading this book that a little too much is sacrificed, that if we wanted a lengthy essay on Pushkin and his influence then that - and not a 'Very Short Introduction to Russian Literature' - is what we would read. There is a tangential feel to the proceedings, rather like straining to hear the song that's playing next door. Not that this is a waste of time per se, but rather that there is still room for a brief history to serve as a portal to the literary riches of what Kelly terms the novel's true spiritual home. What I hoped for was some bearings and context as I delve deeper into Tolstoy and Chekhov (and Nabokov), head back for more Dostoyevsky and Turgenev then move onto Yevgeny Zamyatin, Victor Serge, Anna Akhmatova, Yuri Olesha and Vasily Grossman… These are all big names, but most are hardly touched upon in this 'introduction', let alone given any kind of context.

[Alisha Bruton · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was awful. I love Russian literature and thought I could tolerate any kind of analysis of it, but I was wrong. The author, who, I believe, has a PhD in Russian Lit, seems to have forgotten that she's writing to people who don't know a thing about it. Or it would seem- who else would read "A Very Short Introduction to Russian Literature"? She takes a strange approach- instead of ordering the book chronologically, or based on different styles of writing, she talks about Pushkin only. She mentions other writers, but doesn't explain their style very well, and references so many people and concepts the normal person wouldn't know that the book gets wordy and confusing.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first thing to say about this VSI on Russian Literature is that it needs updating.  Authored by Catriona Kelly from Oxford, it was published in 2001 - ten years after the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 - and you only need to look at the Russian category on Stu's blog at Winston's Dad and here at ANZ LitLovers to see that not only are there now numerous post-Soviet writers clamouring for our attention but also that books suppressed under the Soviet regime are now seeing the light of day. These recent titles - none of whose authors get a mention in the VSI - include:

Christened with crosses by Eduard Kochergin (2009)
Moscow in the 1930’s by Natalia Gromova (2016, also reviewed here on this blog)
Gnedich by Maria Rybakova (2015)
The New Moscow Philosophy by Vyacheslav Pyetsukh (1989, also reviewed here on this blog)
One-Two, by Igor Eliseev (2015)
The Investigator, by Margarita Khemlin, translated by Melanie Moore (2012)
Daniel Stein, Interpreter, by Ludmila Ulitskaya, translated by Arch Tait, Guest review by Subhash Jaireth (2006)
The Funeral Party, by Ludmila Ulitskaya, translated by Cathy Porter(1992)
The Concert Ticket by Olga Grushin(2010)

But that is not my only reservation about this VSI.  I found the whole approach a bit disconcerting.

In the Introduction, for various reasons, Kelly rejects the three forms common to introductions to national literatures: the canon; the sketch of literary movements and cultural institutions, and the subjective personal appreciation approach.  (Alas, I was expecting something rather like a combination of those, which I think would have been rather useful).  Unsurprisingly, given the brevity of the VSI series, she also declines to try the strong central thesis or the in-depth analysis approach.  Instead, she decided to centre it on the Russian equivalent of Shakespeare i.e. Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837):

Pushkin's writings themselves touch on many central themes in contemporary literary history, from the colonisation of the Caucasus to salon culture.  Many different critical approaches have been applied to them, from textology, or the comparison of manuscript variants, to Formalism, to feminism. The development of the 'Pushkin myth' (the writer as 'the founding father of Russian literature' raises all kinds of interesting questions about how literary history is made, about how the idea of a 'national literature' comes into being, and about the way in which these processes made certain kinds of writing seem marginal (writing by Russian women, for instance).

The trouble is, pitching a VSI to Russian Literature via Pushkin is problematic since most of the English-speaking readers to whom the VSI series is pitched won't have read Pushkin except in translation, which is not usually an encouraging experience.

Kelly begins, in Chapter 1 'Testament' by acknowledging this difficulty of Pushkin for non-Russian readers.  On a pedestal in the Russian literary world as the 'greatest' among Russian writers, Pushkin's position is less secure among readers reliant on translation.  Outside Russia, admiration rests on the great prose writers exploring ideas and moral dilemmas - with Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky at the pinnacle.  Pushkin didn't write any comparable novels, and he does not even seem particularly 'Russian'.  But undeterred, Kelly goes on to explain, in some detail, Pushkin's intense sensitivity to stylistic register, to the connotations of words especially the opposition between Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of Russian Orthodoxy, and those of native Russian origin - well, that's interesting up to a point, but this genius of Pushkin remains inaccessible to us.  Translations of Pushkin's style are problematic.  Kelly says that modern linguistic taste has changed in the English-speaking world but not in Russia.  It follows that translations admired by native speakers of Russian tend to go down badly with native speakers of English, and vice versa.  For most us, reading Pushkin in clumsy translation is as close as we're going to get.  (I did not like Anthony Briggs' version of Pushkin's Yevgeny Onegin at all).  Kelly thinks this problem is best served by multiple translations.  Well, maybe.

(BTW, I may not have liked Briggs' translation, but I did like his more down-to-earth explanation of why Pushkin is A Big Deal).

Moving on,  Kelly sets out to frame her VSI in her own idiosyncratic design. 

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/11/10/r...

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the ladybird guide to Russian literature that I was looking for, more a selection of themes seen through the prism of Pushkin. Am none the wiser really.

[Stephen Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kelly takes an interesting approach here, by focusing on the life, works, and legacy of Alexander Pushkin, as a window into the changing role of literature in Russian society over time. It is thus very different from the chronological summary of Russian writers that one might have expected from the title. But as the author notes, other books (such as Victor Terras's Handbook of Russian Literature) already cover the whole field fairly well, and it would have been difficult indeed to squeeze any kind of meaningful summary into 200 small pages.

Although some important writers are barely mentioned if at all, the book does manage to cover many important aspects of Russian history, including gender roles, the multi-ethnic empire, and religion. She pays the most attention to how the "Pushkin myth" has evolved over time, and how through all the tumult of Russian history, with only brief lapses, he has retained a remarkable level of influence in both official and unofficial culture. Moreover, Pushkin's literary successors, whether they sympathized with him or not, have all had to deal with this legacy in their works.

I enjoyed the book very much, although I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read at least some Pushkin before. It was especially interesting for me to read this as I was moving to Moscow for the year to teach English. Today I went to Pushkin's apartment on the Arbat, which is packed with artifacts, paintings, books, and a docent in every room, despite the fact that the poet only lived there for a couple months.

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

'An Introduction to Pushkin, If You've Read Some Pushkin and Are Familiar With Most of the Major Russian Novelists and Poets' would be a better title. This book did not understand it was a VSI. If I hadn't already read a lot of Russian literature I would have been fairly lost, I had to go to the dictionary a few times for words that weren't even technical terms and the Further Reading is just a mess of references.

I read this and know a bit more than I did, but VSIs are meant to spark interest, point to further sources for study and to give a general overview. This was dull and difficult reading, muddled to the point of uselessness for further study and gave me no real sense of an overview.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting discussion. Helps to be somewhat familiar with some Russian texts beforehand.

[Floris Meertens]

Geen introductie en geen overzicht, maar goed leesbaar. Ik snap de nationale fascinatie voor Poesjkin nu iets meer, maar nog steeds niet helemaal.

[Lama Hussein · Rating 3 out of 5]

ليس سيئا. مشكلته أنه ليس مقدمة. يعني يشبه دراسة في مواضيع متعلقة بالأدب الروسي، ويجب أن يمتلك الشخص معرفة سابقة (قراءة مقدمة في الأدب الروسي مثلا) حتى يستطيع أن يفهمها.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a flamboyant tour of Russia - though it is enthusiastic, it does feel like more of a summary than an introduction per se. With one sentence here about one author's book, and then another choice phrase about another, completely different author, I was left feeling slightly like I had seen it all, but blurred and at 60 miles an hour.

That said, because the book starts and ends with the conventional 'father' of Russian literature - Pushkin, of course - you do begin to feel a small acquaintance with him. Unfortunately this is a VSI to Russian literature, not solely Pushkin.

This was good but it did seem to hop about the place a bit.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

My main mistake when beginning to read this introduction to Russian Lit was to fight the author tooth and nail on her conception of how an introduction should be written.

In her preface, Catriona Kelly delineates three main types of literary introductions and then explains why she was not going to write her book in any of those styles. The first style, an exploration of the lives and books of the main figures in the Russian canon, was the kind of book I was hoping to read. Upon discovering her decision to focus the book on Alexander Pushkin and focus every chapter on branching out from him, I threw a tantrum. Don't do what I did, or you won't learn anything.

This is still an imperfect introduction, but Kelly herself makes the point that it would be impossible to do complete justice to such a wide body of work filled with so many thousand-page monstrosities. The structure is a bit jarring at first, but you get the hang of it, and Kelly does a good job of making Russian/Soviet society an interesting topic of study. I'd call the book an introduction to Russian literary culture rather than literature itself, but if you're looking for a reason to care about the best books ever written, this introduction should at the very least pique your curiosity.

[Sujan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like other titles in the series, this book too is stimulating for brain and provoking the interest for further reading. Unlike an ordinary introduction book on a national literature, this book concentrates on the supreme person of the Russian literature tradition, Pushkin, and illuminates different aspects like religion, women writers, the prominent literary theories, in relation to and from the starting point of this great writer. This approach, while not enabling the reader to get fully introduced with Russian literature, helps him or her much to understand the primary undercurrents and forces behind this literature.

While reading, I could not help fancying what it would be like to write a similar introduction book on Bangla literature! Sure to start with Tagore, it would lack the diversities and deepness of Russian literature; also , I am afraid the lack of intellectual refinement and experimentation on language in our literary tradition would result in a slim sized mini-book; maybe a 20 page short account would suffice!

[M. Ashraf · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not think this book give the Russian Literature the justice it deserve, I think it was one sided and focused too much on one Poet Pushkin.
The Book starts with:

"There is quite a lot in this book that is controversial, too, but it is meant to be provocative in an active sense – to stimulate reflection and debate. You will not finish it knowing everything there is to know about Russian literature, but you might, I hope, be inspired to find out more about one of the world’s great literary cultures and to share my enthusiasm for thinking and writing about it."

That made me excited about the book then I was disappointed by the end of it.
Thus I do not think it is a good VSI on a Russian Literature :/

[keyvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was very good. This is more a history of Russian literature from time of Pushkin to the present day. The author puts Pushkin, 'the father of Russian literature', at the center of his investigation. The response, and attitude of Russian writers and poets to Pushkin is used as a method to discover the many different strands of Russian literature. Fragments of writings and poems are discussed throughout the text, and the whole range of political, cultural, and ethnic issues peculiar to Russia's history are always kept in view. Although written by an academic this accessible, and also many new writers/poets were introduced to me here.

[Bibliomantic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many Germans view their literature in terms of before and after Goethe. Catriona Kelly uses a similar approach to Russian lit presenting a series of asides that prefigure the central figure of Pushkin. Lermontov and others rightly make their appearances, but this brief introduction is really just an extended essay on Pushkin. Somewhat interesting, but not truly what the book was supposed to be, I think. Then again, having read several in this series, the only ones truly about their subjects are the biographical sketches, e.g., Tanner's Nietzsche, Wokler's Rousseau, rather than the topical ones like this one.

[Juan Ignacio Gelos]

Review

"It is written in a lively and stimulating manner...and displays a range to which few of Dr. Kelly's peers in the field of Russian scholarship are equal."--Dr. Philip Cavendish

About the Author

Catriona Kelly is a Fellow of New College, Oxford, and the author of A History of Russian Women's Writing and co-editor of Russian Cultural Studies, both published by OUP.

[O. H. Nür-Nathoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title suggests, this book offers a nifty helicopter view of Russian literature. Expanding outwards from Pushkin—who is used as the point of departure from, and return to, the core themes around which the book is structured—Kelly compares and contrasts the approach to these themes taken by an array of Russian writers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is easy to read with some nice details that add colour to what is an otherwise uncontroversial introductory text.

[DoctorM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less an introduction to Russian lit than a long essay on how the idea of literature has been received in Russia over the last two centuries. Kelly begins (naturally) with Pushkin, and uses his image in the Russian popular mind to build outward to discuss what literature does in Russian culture and how it's been used politically and socially.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author has written some outstanding books on modern Russia (see her highly original book on St. Petersburg) so it is very worth while to get her take on Russian literature. I think this book is better than most in this uneven series.

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more of a 3.5 then a 4, but I'll bump it up because of my love for Russian Literature. I enjoyed learning more about Pushkin and being introduced to some authors I hadn't heard of. I have a small list of authors I need to go find now.

[Danılo Horă · Rating 5 out of 5]

The non-orthodox design of this book is truly a work of genius. It really helped me to rethink the way I write. But as an "introduction", I guess it doesn't work at all.

[Willow Rankin · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

I got through 3 chapters and the introduction of this, and my god was I disappointed. Russia as a country is fascinating; from its history, its landmass, its people and its culture.
I have wanted to read War and Peace, and Anna Karina for a while, but held off, partly due to the hefty page count of each and partly for wanting to find an introductory look into both novels; however I thought this book will give me the bare bones of what I needed to prepare myself for these novels, as well as finding some other authors who may not be as well known as Leo Tolstoy.
Instead what I got was an lengthy essay about Pushkin. There is nothing wrong with this Russian author, however, I am now more in the dark about Russian Literature.
I get it, I am not a PHd Student in Literature, which apparently this author is, and neither do I read and write the language, and some there will be cases of translation loss, especially in the poetry of the language used. However, what I wanted to learn about was the Russian Literary scene, and not a one note look at Pushkin. This book is definitely not an introduction. It instead uses Pushkin as an way into Russian literature. Further, I actually learnt very little about Pushkin himself.
Whilst I appreciate this authors knowledge on Russian Literature, I can't help but think she has almost gate-keeped the genre to a very specific group of people who appreciate Pushkin for. Throughout my reading, I can't help but wonder who is the target audience here. As those studying at university, are not in need of "A very short introduction".
Overall for me, this book was dull, confusing and not what I wanted on an introduction to Russian Literature.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a few years since I've really dived into Russian literature and reading academic papers, so I won't pretend to have followed every essay included in this book, but it was good dipping my toes back in the water, so to speak, and having a short guide to get a better sense of the history, themes, and evolution of Russian literature.

I would say that these essays are easier to follow along with if you are better read in Russian texts, especially Aleksandr Pushkin's, whose "Monument" poem drives the structure of this essay collection. However, if you are interested in reading more Pushkin, or are already familiar with his works, this is an interesting and thorough analysis to pick up. As someone who has read some Russian literature, but certainly isn't an expert in it, I would've liked to see more authors I'm familiar with discussed with the same depth as Pushkin, so I could have followed Kelly's ideas further through, but I'm not opposed to returning to this book after I have read more of Pushkin's works (of which I have only read one(!) to date) to better comprehend the analysis provided.

I would not call this book an introduction, as much as a reintroduction to Russian literature for at least intermediate (Pushkin) readers, so take that as you will if you are interested in reading this book.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was deeply disappointing. Instead of offering a coherent and authoritative overview of Russian literature, this book reads like a collection of middling graduate-level essays, most of which focus almost exclusively on Pushkin. In fact, it could have been titled Random Essays on Pushkin without misleading the reader. There is no real chronology, no clear sense of literary development, and very little engagement with the wider tradition.

At one point the author even mentions pre-Pushkin Russian literature, yet nothing in the book prepares you for that, because the overall structure gives the impression that Pushkin alone is the alpha and omega—Russia’s Dante, as it were. The only genuinely interesting chapter was the second-to-last, “Every Tribe and Every Tongue Will Name Me,” which actually situates Russian literature within a broader European and multi-ethnic context. Unfortunately, it feels like a drop of water in an otherwise arid desert.

This is not my first disappointment with the Oxford Very Short Introduction series, but it may be the last. The lack of depth, the uneven quality, and—most importantly—the completely misleading title make this one particularly frustrating. If you are looking for an introduction to Russian literature, this is not it.

[Maggie Desbaillets · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was hoping for... Ideally, I thought it would be a history of Russian literature, cataloguing the different writers, the different movements they were a part of and how their place in history contributed to their work. But the organization made absolutely no sense; she used Pushkin as the center that all else sprung from. I don't necessarily take issue with the fact that she talked a lot about Pushkin, as I know how influential he was on Russian literature, but more so with the fact that I couldn't follow how she connected him to other writers. In sum, I mostly thought the organization was very confusing and her references to authors and books suggested that one needed to read the entirety of Russian literature to understand anything she was saying - certainly not an introduction. I'll be moving on to George Saunders' "A Swim in the Pond," hoping that this book provides a better baseline.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

非常非常非常非常有趣的一本文学史。没有采用常规的年代、作者或流派的分类方式，而是用普希金和他的一首诗为主线，讲述了俄罗斯文学和更大范围的文化中有意思的七个方面。文豪和庸才的作品被放在历史背景中展示，即使是读过的作品，再读起来会有新的启发。特别喜欢关于作家崇拜、审美倾向、民风民俗、女性作者和意识形态的部分。
作者结尾也写得很动人：Like any other literature, it represents the world in new and extraordinary ways, it investigates areas of human experience that we sometimes prefer not to think about; and it offers not only intellectual stimulation but the sensual delight of language stretched to its limits, of laughter, and of flights of imaginative fancy.
这也是读书特别特别有意思的三个地方：看到没有看到的世界；用新的角度感受世界；心的自由和欢愉。

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to make an intelligent comment on this book, as the eruditeness and scholarship of the author was so far beyond me - dazzled me in fact! But I found it a heavy and slow-going read; so much information and such arcane analysis, that the only way I could finish it was by reading small chunks at a time. Am I any the wiser for it? I honestly don't know. But I do have a newfound appreciation for Pushkin and for the apparent complexity and nuances of the the Russian language

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of the better books in this series in my opinion. The author quite clearly was more concerned with the form of the book than its content, the result being an introduction that veers form one thing to the next with some tenuous connection between topics I could not begin to perceive. I wish they had just provided a comprehensible introduction rather than attempted some formalistic masterpiece. I can’t imagine this being my introduction to Russian literature.

[Kubra · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a pity that, in their attempt to be innovative, some of the volumes in the Very Short Introduction series fail to do what they promise to do: to provide concise introduction into a subject for the general audience. This would be a far better read if you already were already familiar with the subject and had a profound love for Pushkin, around whom the whole book revolves.