The Myth of A.S. Pushkin in Russia's Silver Age: M.O. Gershenzon, Pushkinist

by Brian Horowitz

Overview

Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon, philosopher, journalist, and scholar, was one of the most original and eccentric Pushkinists of Russia's Silver Age. His eclectic critical judgment was highly esteemed by his generation's best poets and critics, and many of his idiosyncratic interpretations of Pushkin have become canonical. Brian Horowitz's detailed study illuminates both Pushkin's position as a cultural icon of the Silver Age and Gershenzon's role in establishing and challenging that reputation. As Gershenzon's work mirrors both significant and hidden aspects of the Pushkin scholarship of his day, his articulation of Pushkin as the symbolic key to Russian culture reflects the Silver Age nostalgia for and identification with the Golden Age in which Pushkin wrote. This first book-length study of this important figure provides a vivid sense of the inner workings of Russian literary life in the early part of this century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810113558
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	07/08/1996
Series:	Studies in Russian Literature and Theory
Edition description:	1
Pages:	129
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.60(d)

Editorial Reviews

Uses the work of literary critic and scholar Gershenzon (1869- 1925) as a mirror to reveal unexpressed but fundamental philosophical perspectives of the various scholarly schools dominating Russia in the first quarter of the 20th century. An expert on the early 19th-century Russian poet Pushkin, Gershenzon carried on heated polemics with contemporary Positivists, Symbolists, Formalists, and Idealists, forcing them to state their philosophical premises. The quotations are in both English and Russian. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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