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Focusing primarily on the close study of literary works presented in the broad cultural and historical context,
Jacob's Ladder discusses the reflection of kabbalistic allegory in Russian literature and provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the perception of Kabbalah in Russian consciousness.
About the author
Marina Aptekman is an assistant professor of Russian Language and Literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She received her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Brown University in 2003. Her recent publications include articles ¿Forward to the Past or Two Radical Views on Russian Nationalist Future: Pyotr Krasnov¿s Behind the Thistle and Vladimir Sorokin¿s Day of Oprichnik¿ (SEEJ), and ¿Kabbalah, Judeo-Masonic Conspiracy and Post-Soviet Literary Discourse: from Political Tool to Virtual Reality.¿(Russian Review).
Summary
Focusing primarily on the close study of literary works presented in the broad cultural and historical context, Jacob’s Ladder discusses the reflection of kabbalistic allegory in Russian literature and provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the perception of Kabbalah in Russian consciousness. Aptekman investigates the questions of when, how and why Kabbalah has been used in Russian literary texts from Pre-Romanticism to Modernism and what particular role it played in the larger context of the Russian literary tradition. The correct understanding of this liaison helps the reader to clarify many enigmatic images in Russian literary works of the last two centuries and to understand the roots of a particular cultural falsification that played an important role in the anti-Semitic mythology of the twentieth century.
Additional text
“Marina Aptekman’s thoroughly researched book Jacob’s Ladder makes a valuable contribution to both Russian and Jewish Studies by exploring the evolution of kabbalistic themes and allegories in literature and philosophy from pre-Romanticism to the Silver Age. This study opens up new ways of decoding and interpreting literary works by tracing the evolution of mystical kabbalistic allegories during three centuries of Russian literature."
