Page 26 - The University of Wisconsin Press Spring 2013
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S
PRING
2013
LITERATURE & CRITICISM / RUSSIAN STUDIES / SLAVIC STUDIES
“A work of impressive quality that shows in detail how broad a shadow
Russia’s supreme poet cast on those coming after.”
David M. Bethea,
series editor
When geniuses meet, something extraordinary happens, like lightning pro-
duced from colliding clouds, observed Russian poet Alexander Blok. There is
perhaps no literary collision more fascinating and deserving of study than the
relationship between Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837), Russia’s greatest poet, and
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–81), its greatest prose writer. In the twentieth century,
Pushkin, “Russia’s Shakespeare,” became enormously influential, his literary
successors universally acknowledging and venerating his achievements. In the
nineteenth century, however, it was Dostoevsky more than any other Russian
writer who wrestled with Pushkin’s legacy as cultural icon and writer. Though
he idolized Pushkin in his later years, the younger Dostoevsky exhibited a much
more contentious relationship with his eminent precursor.
In
Challenging the Bard
, Gary Rosenshield engages with the critical histories
of these two literary titans, illuminating how Dostoevsky reacted to, challenged,
adapted, and ultimately transformed the work of his predecessor Pushkin. Focus-
ing primarily on Dostoevsky’s works through 1866—including
Poor Folk
,
The
Double
,
Mr. Prokharchin
,
The Gambler
, and
Crime and Punishment
—Rosenshield
observes that the younger writer’s way to literary greatness was not around Push-
kin, but through him. By examining each literary figure in terms of the other,
Rosenshield demonstrates how Dostoevsky both deviates from and honors the
work of Pushkin. At its core,
Challenging the Bard
offers a unique perspective on
the poetry of the master, Pushkin, the prose of his successor, Dostoevsky, and the
nature of literary influence.
Gary Rosenshield
, professor emeritus of Slavic languages and literature at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison, is the author of many books, including
Push-
kin and the Genres of Madness
and
Western Law, Russian Justice
, both published
by the University of Wisconsin Press.
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
JULY
LC: 2012032688 PG
256 PP. 6 X 9
E-BOOK $24.95 ISBN 978-0-299-29353-6
Publications of the Wisconsin Center
for Pushkin Studies
David M. Bethea and Alexander
Dolinin, Series Editors
“Interesting, effective, and thought
provoking thanks to Rosenshield’s
acute analysis and originality.”
Sarah J. Young, author of
Dostoevsky’s
“The Idiot” and the Ethical Foundations
of Narrative: Reading, Narrating,
Scripting
26
THE UNIVERSIT Y OF WISCONSIN PRESS
•
O f r e l a t e d i n t e r e s t
“Rosenshield’s book is a gold mine of
information not only on Pushkin but on
many of his predecessors, contemporaries,
and critics as well.”—Victor Terras, author
of
A History of Russian Literature
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 2003
LC: 2003005698 PG 272 PP. 6 × 9
Publications of the Wisconsin Center
for Pushkin Studies
