This book illuminates the connectedness of Dostoevsky's literary art with his philosophical and psychological brilliance. Two Fyodor Dostoevsky conferences originating at the University of North Texas set the stage for this volume. Scholars contributed original papers focusing on how Dostoevsky's literary art and philosophical insights enrich one another. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote and thought polyphonically. His polyphonic method is both his special literary technique and his distinctive way of probing theological, social, and philosophical depths. As Bakhtin and Terras suggest, all Dostoevsky's major literary inventions from the underground man to the vitriolic Grushenka are products of his ability to listen profoundly to his own characters. Like the genius author-redactor of 1 and 2 Samuel, he reports the heights and depths of human emotion and behavior, whether exploring the anatomy of dysfunctional families, making the heart soar with Zosima's vision of forgiveness, or giving Ivan Karamazov full rein to challenge theism. Dostoevsky's characters transform themselves into irregular verbs whose fierce independence emerges only because of their desperate and inescapable interdependence. His major characters are text, subtext, and context for each other. They play inside each other's head and answer in one way or another."

This edition of Pushkin's tragedy "Boris Godunov" is part of the Bristol Classical Press Russian Texts series. The series is designed to meet the needs of the growinghigh school and undergraduate market for texts in the Russian language. Each text comes with English notes and vocabulary, and with an introduction by an editor with an expert knowledge both of the work and of its literary and cultural context

This magisterial work, written by one of the world's foremost Slavic scholars, presents a survey of Russian literature from its beginning in the eleventh century to modern times. Victor Terras argues eloquently that Russian literature has reflected, defined, and shaped the nation's beliefs and goals, and he sets his survey against a background of social and political developments and religious and philosophic thought. Terras traces a rich literary heritage that encompasses Russian folklore of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, medieval literature that in style and substance drew on the Byzantine tradition, and literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Russia passed through a succession of literary schools-neoclassicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, and realism-imported from the West. Terras then moves on to the masterful realist fiction of Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoi during the second half of the nineteenth century, showing how it was a catalyst for the social and cultural advances following the reforms of Alexander II. In discussing the period preceding the revolution of 1917, Terras links the literary movements with parallel developments in the theater, music, and the visual arts, explaining that these all placed Russia in the forefront of European modernism. Terras divides Russian literature after the revolution into emigre and Soviet writing, and he demonstrates how the latter acted as a propaganda tool of the Communist party. He concludes his survey with the dissident movement that followed Stalin's death, arguing that the movement again made literature a leader in the struggle for freedom of thought, genuine relevance, and communion with Western culture.

This first encyclopedia of its kind in English covers ten centuries of Russian literature and includes nearly 1,000 entries by leading scholars. It will be an indispensable guide for students or the general reader. "The Handbook is an Eden for browsers... a dependable, illuminating guide."-Robert Taylor, Boston Globe "A comprehensive survey in one volume of one of the world's richest national literatures. The volume includes entries on authors, genres, literary movements, and period studies, together with reviews of notable journals. The lengthiest entries run to more than 6,000 words, the shortest have been kept to a single paragraph, giving the book value both for ready reference and as a collection of history and criticism."-Booklist "The achievement here is grand, the knowledge collected invaluable."-Theoharis C. Theoharis, Christian Science Monitor "A vast and informative compilation.... The magnificent panorama of Russian literature accumulatively unfolds, from its ancient folklore and earliest written texts... to our present century's structuralism, modernism, and socialist realism."-Gordon McVay, Times Higher Education Supplement "For anyone interested in Russian literature, this new Handbook is the single most useful book to own."-J. Thomas Shaw, Slavic and East European Journal "An indispensable source of concise information for all students of literature for years to come."-Ray Parrott, Philological Quarterly

This edition of Pushkin's tragedy "Boris Godunov" is part of the Bristol Classical Press Russian Texts series. The series is designed to meet the needs of the growinghigh school and undergraduate market for texts in the Russian language. Each text comes with English notes and vocabulary, and with an introduction by an editor with an expert knowledge both of the work and of its literary and cultural context