Description: Anna Karenina is probably the most often taught nineteenth-century Russian novel in the American academy. Teachers have found that including this virtuoso work of art on a syllabus reaps many rewards and stirs up heated classroom discussion -- on sex and sexuality, dysfunction in the family, gender roles, society's hypocrisy and cruelty. But translation and transliteration problems, the peculiarity of Russian names and terms, and the unfamiliarity of Russian geography and history present a range of pedagogical challenges.
Brief description:
Liza Knapp, associate professor of Slavic languages at the University of Minnesota, is the editor of Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych: A Critical Companion (Northwestern UP, 1999) and the author of Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilich: An Interpretation (Macmillan, 1993). He has published widely in Tolstoy studies, most recently "On the Style of a Story for the People" (1998) and "Brother or Other: Tolstoy's Equivocal Surrender to the Concept of Brotherhood" (1996).
Review Quotes:
The essays reflect an awareness of the latest research on the novel, and the range of topics and list of contributors are impressive. Those less familiar with Russian literature or with Tolstoy will find something new on virtually every page, but even Russian specialists will find inspiration from many of the essays. --Barry Scherr, Dartmouth College