Russian literature Essays

  • Influences in Russian Literature

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the beginning of time, the Russian country has made several tremendous impacts on the world that will go down in history forever. One of the major impacts that Russia has affected the world with was literature. Russian literature became significant during the time where everything politically was drastically changing in the 19th century. Russian literature became an interest because the stories were been written about the everyday Russian life that the rest of the world knew very little about

  • Materialism in Russian Literature

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the mid-nineteenth century Western Europe had a firm grasp on Russian society and culture. At that time, Western Europe called for Modernization, which places a heavy emphasis on wealth and social maneuverability often leading to increased Economic Materialism and Egoism. Both Leo Tolstoy, in his work, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in his work, Notes from Underground criticize Modernization and its effects as a danger to society. At the same time, both seem to advocate for moral

  • The literary Trope of a Superfluous Man in Russian Literature and Culture

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    Russian literature was very much influenced by the literary trope known as the superfluous man. This trope was ideal for writers to describe the shortcomings of Russian high-class society. There has been a witnessed general consistency when dealing with the superfluous man such as the exhibition of cynicism and existential angst, while indulging in vices such as affairs, gambling and duelling. These individuals are typically from noble birth yet refused to fit into society and disregard the societal

  • Russian Art, Music and Literature

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    Russian Art, Music and Literature The Arts play a large role in the expression of inner thoughts and beauty in life. From dance and music to art the concept of life is shown through the various ways in which we interpret it. The arts play a valued role in creating cultures and developing and documenting civilizations. Russia has been developing the its culture for as long as anybody could think. Nowadays, Russian painters and musicians are quickly becoming well known among each and every one around

  • Recurring Themes in 19th Century Russian Literature

    3526 Words  | 8 Pages

    million Russians worked inside factories: in a century, Russia had moved from a feudal system of serfdom to the shores of modernity. A theme of duplicity was carried throughout. The new industries and arterial railroads were European inventions, so was Russia a European nation? Or, did Russia's devotion to the Tsar and the peasant commune separate her from the growingly liberal, economically individualistic West? The theme of duality is spread throughout Crime and Punishment (in Russian, Преступление

  • Woland Doesn 'T Burn' In Russian Literature

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    dangerous by the authorities. Soviet government efforts to confiscate and eradicate unauthorized literature was thwarted by authors using various methods between the 1920s and 1970s: secretly circulating samizdat copies, the memorizing of texts, the hiding of manuscripts, making and secreting carbon copies, the smuggling of microfilm versions out to publishers in the West. Several classics of world literature have survived to tell their tale, among them

  • Pushkin's The Queen of Spades

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    external effects. The pursuit of form sweeps them toward exaggeration and bombast. He criticized in Hugo, whom he admired, an absence of simplicity. Life is lacking in him, he wrote. In other words, truth is absent. The strangeness of most Russian writers, including the greatest among them, often baffles the French reader, and indeed, sometimes repels him; but I confess that it is the absence of strangeness in Pushkin that confounds me. Or at least what baffles me, is to see that Dostoevsky

  • Alexander Pushkin Influences

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    whom owe inspiration to romantic era author and poet Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin is considered the father of modern Russian literature and is often compared to the likes of England’s Byron or Shakespeare. Pushkin challenged literary norms and was a vital voice in Russian society. Although Alexander Pushkin’s greatest piece, “Eugene Onegin”, is a narrative tale it says much about Russian character and culture itself as influenced by the time and circumstance. Pushkin was born May 26, 1799 into Moscow

  • The Extraordinary Men in Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

    2161 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dostoevsky’s theme of ordinary and extraordinary people is the basis of his work of literature, Crime and Punishment, which derives from his own life experiences. Crime and Punishment, is the story of a Russian man named Rodion Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov is an impoverished St. Petersburg habitant student who, “determined to overreach his humanity and assert his untrammeled individual will commit two acts of murder and theft” (Dostoevsky). To try to amend his actions, he uses the money he steals from

  • Comparing Heroines in Anna Karenina and War and Peace

    2447 Words  | 5 Pages

    and meet different people. Russian literature has always differed in its depth of the ideological maintenance, in many literary works writes mainly try to resolve questions of the meaning of life and how it humanely relate to people with its truth of the image. Russian writers try to show the best images of women that can be related to real women in life. None of the other world literature we can see such fine and pure women as we can see in Russian literature. Russian writers show true loving heart

  • Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    2205 Words  | 5 Pages

    and 1880, Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky completed several well-read novels, including Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Possessed plus a long list of other outstanding works. In the second part of this essay expanding upon my reading of nineteenth century Russian authors, the short stories of Anton Chekhov, “The Lady with the White Dog” and the “Medical Case” will be compared. These two great authors’ whose stylistic qualities often create problems in interpretation for non-Russian speaking

  • Analysis Of The Cherry Orchard By Anton Chekhov

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    most important Russian writers. Other Russian writers were Tolstoy, Torgenine and Pushkane. Anton was born in Taganrog in 1860, got educated at Moscow to become a doctor, soon he realized he has love for literature. Being a doctor he developed into a famous short story writer and dramatist. On the Road(1884), The Bear (1888), The Wood Demon(1889) are his early plays. His later plays areIvanhoe(1887),Three Sisters(1899), The Cherry Orchard(1904). His plays portray the 19th century Russian life in its

  • The Russian Horse: Vitality, Personality, and Politics

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    many things, it's no wonder they were presented in literature so often. They have a significant presence as far as the story line is concerned, due to the fact that most traveling is done with a horse or horses, horses are used for work, and, in Kasbich's case, they act as friends who will never share your secrets. Their significant presence hence lends itself to an even greater role. Since they were already an integral part of the tale, Russian authors gave more importance to their roles, and it

  • Nature and Nurture in Crime and Punishment

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. New York: Random House, 1992. Gale Research Co. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Detroit, MI 1984, Vol. 7. Kjetsaa, Geir. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, A Writer's Life. New York, New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987, Magill, Frank. Masterplots. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1976. Terras, Victor. Handbook of Russian Literature. New Haven, CT; Yale University Press, 1985. Timoney, John. Speech on Crime and Punishment. Mt. Holyoke

  • A Truly Beautiful Soul in The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

    3019 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky stands at the very summit of Russian literature. No 19th-century writer had greater psychological insight or philosophical depth.  None speaks more immediately and passionately to the mood and tone of the present century. This essay will discuss how Dostoyevsky's intent to portray a 'truly beautiful soul' manifests itself in the novel The Idiot, and access Dostoyevsky's success or failure in achieving his intention. Dostoyevsky confesses in

  • Gender and Evil in Crime and Punishment and The Master and Margarita

    2109 Words  | 5 Pages

    Gender and Evil The conflict between good and evil is one of the most common conventional themes in literature. Coping with evil is a fundamental struggle with which all human beings must contend. Sometimes evil comes from within a character, and sometimes other characters are the source of evil; but evil is always something that the characters struggle to overcome. In two Russian novels, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, men and women cope

  • Crime and Punishment: Dostoevsky's Portrayal of Anti-Nihilism

    1451 Words  | 3 Pages

    soon left the military to pursue literature. Reform dominated Russia in the mid-1800s, and Dostoevsky held liberal, Western, views. Dostoevsky's ideas toward new radicals practicing Nihilism are paramount in Crime and Punishment, where he advances the idea that Nihilism is "detrimental to society and can lead to suffering and chaos" (Lin). Crime and Punishment takes the reader on a mentally perilous journey through the mind and actions of Raskolnikov, a Russian man who deals with tremendous guilt

  • Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons, We

    1554 Words  | 4 Pages

    forced to drop out of the university because he is unable to afford the tuition, is forced to work part-time with his friend Razumihin as a translator. Through this endeavor, Raskolnikov, or Rodya as his mother calls him, becomes well versed in the literature and existentialist philosophies of the time. Writing to a local newspaper, Rodya ventures to propose a superman theory similar to that of Nietzsche, made popular around the time Dostoevsky wrote the novel. “I only believe in my leading idea that

  • The Use of Numbers in The Queen of Spades

    1535 Words  | 4 Pages

    of the triumvirate of great Russian literature. As concerns The Queen of Spades, D.S. Mirsky has this to say, "The Queen of Spades is beyond a doubt Pushkin's masterpiece in prose" (436). Works Cited Mirsky, D.S.   Title unknown.   1926.   Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism Volume 3.   Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris.   Detroit:   Gale Research Company,   1983. Pushkin, Alexander.   The Queen of Spades.   1834.   Trans.   Ivy and Tatiana Litvinov.   Literature of the Western World, Third Edition

  • War and Peace and Tolstoy's View of History

    2804 Words  | 6 Pages

    War and Peace and Tolstoy's View of History Count Lev Tolstoy wrote abundantly on the philosophical issues that he felt were universally important.  One of the most prolific examples of this is his view of history.  This is set out most clearly and most famously in his largest work, War and Peace.  As Tolstoy claimed himself in a public statement on the work, 'War and Peace is what the author wanted and was able to express in that form in which it was expressed.'  Not only do the themes and