Customer Reviews

Pushkin and Romantic Fashion: Fragment, Elegy, Orient, Irony

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This is the best piece of literary criticism I have read on a Russian author, and definitely one of the best pieces in lit studies in general. Greenleaf is sophisticated yet remarkably clear and persuasive. And the book is not just useful for readers of Pushkin; I would argue that any lit student should read some of this, to get a sense of how genre figures into literary analysis. I loved it.

This book received major awards from both the modern language association (MLA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. It is best described by the citation from the MLA judges: "In a volume whose elegant style and civilized irony are a loving critical tribute to Russia's 'national poet,' Monika Greenleaf confronts Pushkin's protean nature with exhaustive comparative research, independent- minded recourse to contemporary critical theory, unfailing fairness to her scholarly predecessors, and a sharp eye for the details and patterns of Pushkin's major and minor texts. Her notion of 'self-portraiture' allows her to join readings of Pushkin's work, culture, and biography together in a subtle, persuasive whole that is sure to be a landmark in Russian studies for years to come."