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Breaking
Free from Death examines the lives and choices that
Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bunin, and Meyerhold must have faced in order to preserve their
singularity and integrity while attempting to achieve fame, greatness and
success.
List of contents
Table of Contents
AcknowledgementsPrologue: Breaking Free from Death
Part One: Beginnings and Endings1. Leo Tolstoy and the Privilege of Formidable Hypochondria
2. In Chertkov's Grip
3.
Uncle Vanya: The Drama of Sustainability
4. "Homo Sachaliensis": Chekhov's "Character" as a Strategy
5.
The Steppe as a Story of Humble and Spectacular Beginnings
Part Two: Transcending Death6. Reading Chekhov through Meyerhold's Eyes
7. Living with Tolstoy and Dying with Chekhov: Ivan Bunin's
Liberation of Tolstoy (1937) and
About Chekhov (1953) as Two Modes of Auto/Biographical Writing
8. "There is a way out":
The Cherry Orchard in the Twenty-First Century
9. A Boring Story: Chekhov's Trip to Germany in 1904
Epilogue: Oyster Fever: Chekhov and Turgenev
Index
About the author
Galina Rylkova is
Associate Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Florida. She is the
author of The Archaeology of Anxiety: The
Russian Silver Age and Its Legacy (2007). Her research interests include:
Psychology of Creative Personality; Biography; and Russian Theater.
Summary
Examines how Russian writers respond to the burden of living with anxieties about their creative outputs, and, ultimately, about their own inevitable finitude. The book describes the lives and choices that concrete individuals and their literary characters must face in order to preserve their integrity while attempting to achieve fame and success.
Additional text
“Rylkova’s meticulous study is full of original insights and new interpretations of famous literary works, delivered in a lucid and accessible writing style, with numerous references to primary sources; it is a joy to read. Furthermore, she supplies her readers with a clear road map throughout the book, explaining her next steps and intentions at every turn. Her narrative is thought-provoking even when one disagrees with her. … In general, it is perhaps an ungrateful task to try to disentangle the inner workings of a personality, especially that of genius. However, one can hope to add yet another facet to complement the existing picture. Rylkova’s book, in my view, does just that—and does so with elegance—supplying another jigsaw piece to our understanding of Russian literary giants and their legacy. Only through the resulting multifaceted perspective can we hope for a holistic grasp of the subject, and of human condition in general.”
—Olga Tabachnikova, University of Central Lancashire, Russian Review
