TY - BOOK ID - 68705143 TI - The Irony of the Ideal PY - 2017 SN - 9781618116321 1618116320 9781618116338 1618116339 1618119826 PB - Boston, MA DB - UniCat KW - Paradox in literature. KW - Russian literature KW - Russian literature. KW - History and criticism. KW - Paradoxes in literature UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:68705143 AB - This book explores the major paradoxes of Russian literature as a manifestation of both tragic and ironic contradictions of human nature and national character. Russian literature, from Pushkin and Gogol to Chekhov, Nabokov and to postmodernist writers, is studied as a holistic text that plays on the reversal of such opposites as being and nothingness, reality and simulation, and rationality and absurdity. The glorification of Mother Russia exposes her character as a witch; a little man is transformed into a Christ figure; consistent rationality betrays its inherent madness, and extreme verbosity produces the effect of silence. The greatest Russian writers were masters of spiritual self-denial and artistic self-destruction, which explains many paradoxes and unpredictable twists of Russian history up to our time. ER -