Russian Short Story Final – Flashcards

WRITTEN: Karamzin, 1792 SUMMARY: Liza lives alone with mom and sells flowers. Meets Erast while selling flowers. Erast visits Liza in country and charms mom. Liza promises to sell flowers only to him. Secret pure relationship. Liza betrothed to random guy. She and Erast have sex. Erast loses interest. Erast goes to war but promises to return. After awhile Liza sees Erast in carriage. He got into debt so married a rich old lady. Liza kills herself. NARRATION: narrator is embodied 1st person narrator w/ no action in story. Apparently met Erast, but somehow knows Liza's thoughts. THEMES: metaliterary stuff, Erast idealizes Liza and nature (imitative desire), sentamentalism (but Erast not a sentamentalist). Liza rejects money. MISC: Liza's death foreshadowed by her throwing away lilies. Lilies symbolize Liza, both belong to Erast.

TIME: during reign of Catherine the Great KNOWN FOR: Simplified Russian language. Linked Russia to rest of Europe. THEMES: Sentamentalism (reaction to classicism) stressed emotions over order, nature over city, heart over mind, lots of death, focus on ordinary individuals. Reader supposed to be sad, so feel love and unity w/ characters and author.

WRITTEN: Pushkin, 1831 SUMMARY: Narrator meets station master and daughter (Dunya). Later, hussar comes to station and pretends to be sick. Dunya and dad nurse him. Dunya runs away with hussar. Doctor admits hussar wasn't sick. Dunya becomes rich. Station master tries to get Dunya back, but hussar just gives him money. Dad throws away money. Well-dressed man steals it. Dad becomes alcoholic. Narrator visits station and buys story of Dunya w/ drinks. Dad dies drinking. Dunya later pays ugly little boy to take her to dad's grave. NARRATION: 1st person narrator, minor character in story THEMES: money important, think for yourself, be openminded, metaliterary (prodigal son, Dunya=lost sheep), station master is first Russian "little man" (sympathetic but ridiculed), not idealistic MISC: Spoof of "Poor Liza." Not sentamentalism. Dunya acts symbolically as station master's wife. No explicit moral.

WRITTEN: Pushkin, 1830s? SUMMARY: Soldiers hang w/ Silvio a lot. He always keeps track of cards. New soldier insults his card-tracking. Silvio doesn't challenge him to duel. Soldier loses respect. Silvio explains. Silvio once challenged Count to a duel, but got pissed and doesn't shoot. Silvio planning revenge ever since. Soldier understands and leaves. Later soldier lives in small town and goes to see a count when he visits. Count ends up being Silvio's enemy. Count tells story about Silvio showing up right after his marriage to finish duel, because wants to do it when it matters. Silvio misses on purpose and shoots pic instead. NARRATION: 3 narrators, random soldier is main narrator, but Silvio and Count tell stories as well. Pushkin trying to distance himself from story w/ primary and secondary narrators THEMES: dueling, honor, control (Silvio), happiness vs. ego and mastery, well-born vs. self-made MISC: Both Silvio and Count portray other w/ respect (honor!!). Silvio and Count represent 2 sides of Pushkin's personality

TIME: 1831, "Golden Age" of Russian lit KNOWN FOR: Stories for commercial value, not moral. Best prose writer for Russians (larger-than-life). Tried to mimic Byron and Shakespeare, "Russianized" European movements. BIO: aristocraticish, exotic heritage, problems w/ dueling and gambling, died in duel defending wife's honor THEMES: commercial writing, money, metaliterary, not idealistic, think for yourself

WRITTEN: Gogol, 1809-1852 SUMMARY: Akaky is super boring copier and no one likes him. Needs to mend overcoat. Tailor can't mend it, just sew a new one. Akaky sacrifices food and stuff to afford it and gets excited about planning it w/ tailor. Gets overcoat and wears it to work. People admire it and invite him to party. Goes to party. Sees beautiful woman and randomly follows her after party. Gets mugged and coat stolen. Goes home and landlady accidentally flashes him. Reports robbery to VIP and gets yelled at b/c VIP thinks he's the shit. Akaky flips out and dies. Akaky's ghost haunts VIP. VIP dumps his mistress. NARRATION: 1st person omniscient narrator, not a character, unreliable "skaz" narrator, reader feels uncertain THEMES: vagueness, not seeing (smoky kitchen, Akaky can't see when told he needs new coat), people compared to objects, rank, new ways don't work, sexual immaturity, boringness, status (overcoat), emasculation (overcoat=vagina) MISC: Parallels b/w Akaky and VIP (sudden rise in importance, obsession, "mistresses"), Akaky "marries" his overcoat, champions and makes fun of "little man" (more making fun)

WRITTEN: 1809-1852 sometime, Gogol SUMMARY: Barber finds nose in bread. Tries to get rid of it... "Major" Kovalyov wakes up w/o nose. Looks for nose. Sees it in church. Asks it to return, but nose outranks him. Tries to put ad in paper but ridiculed. Writes angry letter to possible future wife's mom b/c he blames her. Wasn't her. Cop returns nose. Kovalyov tries to put it on and fails, doctor can't help. Nose magically returns to face one night while sleeping. Kovalyov happy, doesn't marry girl and screws around instead. NARRATION: 1st person omniscient narrator, not a character, unreliable so reader always unsure THEMES: vagueness (things get hazy and misty), status (nose, women), emasculation, rank (Kovalyov calls himself Major and outranked by nose) MISC: Ridiculous story made up of normalish pieces. Story either lasts 13 days or 1 b/c Russia's Julian 13 days behind Gregorian. Kovalyov calling himself "major" parallels cat fur looking like mink in Overcoat

TIME: 1809-1852, "Gogolian period", transition Romantic to Realistic KNOWN FOR: satire, influential later, super self-conscious, making "nothings" into funny, poetic, etc. stories BIO: no romantic relationships, big nose, weird, did nothing but write, kinda split personality, conservative but criticized for being too left THEMES: boundaries, scams, supernatural, tension b/w "nobodies" and "great people", comparing people to objects (objects more important), possibly capitalism, women either goddesses or trolls, obsession/focus, rank

WRITTEN: Lermontov, 1814-1841 sometime SUMMARY: Narrator stops in Taman on a trip somewhere. Taman sucks. Has to stay with lady and blind orphan boy. Sees blind boy discussing something sketchy with some woman late at night on a cliff by the sea. Interrogates boy the next morning, but learns nothing. Meets weird girl, attracted to her, and tries to get her attention by pretending he knows about sketchy cliff thing. She pretends to be attracted to him and invites him to beach at night. They go out on boat that night and she tries to drown him b/c she thinks he knows too much. He escapes and hears the group (smugglers) end smuggling scheme. Goes back to room and finds that blind boy stole some of his stuff. Humiliated, so doesn't report robbery or attempted drowning. Leaves next morning. NARRATION: 1st person narrator is main character in story, but has no action in story (just witness), "superfluous man" THEMES: misunderstandings, anticlimax, loss of pride, seeing

TIME: 1814-1841, Romantic w/ some Realism KNOWN FOR: wrote famous poem about Pushkin's death, famous and influential Russian writer BIO: aristocratic, bad luck w/ women, military officer, idolized Pushkin (in lots of duels), banished by Tsar Nicholas for Pushkin poem, famous enough that everything he wrote got published when he died THEMES: problems w/ women, "superfluous man" (aristocratic/educated but bored and useless)

WRITTEN: Dostoevsky, mid 1800s SUMMARY: Narrator feels pointless. Contemplates suicide. Sees little girl who needs help but doesn't help her. Looks at stars and wonders about life there. Goes home, falls asleep, and has weird dream. Dies and gets buried but can't stay dead because water drips on his head. Transported to stars, where there's a utopian world. Accidentally corrupts the utopia. Utopian people think he's amazing but won't listen when he tells them he was wrong. He wakes up. Decides not to kill himself. Goes out and preaches about truth and his dream, and decides to go help little girl. NARRATION: 1st person, narrator is main character THEMES: religion (Christianity), heart over brain, life can't be "cut," perfect surroundings don't mean perfect, improvement comes from within MISC: thinking about life on stars foreshadows dream where he's transported there, story is short version of Crime and Punishment

WRITTEN: Dostoevsky, 1877 (4 yrs before death) SUMMARY: Pawn shop owner has flashback of his marriage over her coffin. First he notices one of his customers. She lives w/ mean aunts and might have to marry abusive grocer. Pawn shop owner proposes and she accepts. He refuses to show affection. They argue about money a lot. He controls wife and money. Wife has "affair" of mind/trust w/ husband's enemy. Learns about husband's disgrace in early life when refused duel. Husband catches them and gets mad. Wakes up next morning and she's holding gun to his head, but doesn't shoot. She gets sick. He nurses her, spends money on her, and she gets better. Explains his deep thoughts and secrets to her. Waits all winter and does nice things to impress her. She gets sad in spring. He professes his love for her, apologizes, and kisses her feet. She freaks out. A couple days later she jumps out a window and dies. Man super sad and grieving. NARRATION: 1st person, narrator is pawn shop owner, flawed and kinda unreliable THEMES: capitalism and totalitarianism are bad, control, realist relationship, anatomy of a marriage, money, humbling/taming, pride, mental abuse just as bad as physical MISC: parallels Poor Liza, pawnbroker is typical negative character

WRITTEN: Dostoevsky, 1821-1881 SUMMARY: Narrator works in office and hates people. Decides to be social and goes to college friend's house. Other old classmates there discussing party for rich, popular classmate. Narrator feels left out, even though none of them like each other and he hates rich classmate. Invites himself to party and borrows money to go. Host changes time w/o telling him. Narrator gets to restaurant early and awkwardly sits there. Classmates show up and start dinner. Narrator gets drunkish and is super offensive throughout dinner, but they don't care that much b/c they don't care about him. Classmates going to brothel after. Narrator wants to show them up, so desperately borrows more money to follow. Loses classmates, but gets a *****. They have sex and then he tells her what's wrong w/ her life. She cries and he invites her to his house in the future. She comes, they have sex again. He tells Liza he was just messing w/ her, then feels bad and leaves her money. She doesn't take the money and leaves, so apparently rescues herself from prostitution. NARRATION: 1st person, narrator is main character, contradictory and irrational, "underground man" THEMES: subvert Chernyshevsky's story where doctor "saves" prostitute b/c wants to show Chernyshevsky's protagonists just want power, redemption, virtuous prostitute MISC: typical Dostoevsky b/c Liza never gets to talk (man just assumes he can guess her story), man sees himself as writer, prostitute saves herself

TIME: 1821-1881, Romantic Realist (like Dickens and Hugo) KNOWN FOR: leftist views, psychological stories, Russian Orthodox fundamentalist views, antiradical BIO: exiled to Siberia for 10 years for leftist views and wrote about prison, from poor gentry family THEMES: extreme metaliterariness, "underground man" (mix of little and superfluous man), dialogism (every character develops POV), conversations b/w rich rational and poor irrational where poor wins, everyone has valid opinions, downtrodden women as heroines, Christianity over science and civilization, spiritual rebirth over social engineering, martyrs, Slavophile (anti-Western), "soilist" (looks up to lower class), mind, everything has 2 sides

WRITTEN: Leskov, 1887 SUMMARY: Sentry guarding palace 1839. Nothing's going on, but he sees a man drowning in river. Not allowed to leave guard, but does it anyway to save man. Gives man to rich guy to take to hospital and get credit as hero. His superiors find out and get mad. Try to figure out how to solve problem w/o messing w/ their reputations. Problem keeps getting taken to guys of higher and higher rank. Trick everyone to actually believing rich guy's story about saving man w/o getting wet. Then punish the sentry harshly, even though he was being nice and no harm done. NARRATION: 1st person omniscient unembodied narrator who promises whole story is true (it isn't) THEMES: rank (progresses all the way to God), "little man," actual events vs. psychological, trickster, Kokoshkin did the right thing in trickery but fails to protect sentry, criticizing Church, hypocrisy (bishop) MISC: no women in story

TIME: 1831-1895 KNOWN FOR: unique writing style BIO: Joined criminal court office. Moved to Kiev to work as clerk. Super involved there. Then worked for trading company. Admired by peers. Some works banned for satirizing Russian Orthodox church. THEMES: portraying contemporary Russian society, tricksters

WRITTEN: Tolstoy, 1828-1910 SUMMARY: Ivan decides to tell story. Once he was in love w/ a girl. There was a ball. He tried to get her to dance w/ him as much as possible, even when it broke rules. She dances w/ her dad. Dad gives her back to Ivan. He goes home. Doesn't want to sleep so goes on a walk. Accidentally ends up outside girl's house. He sees her dad beating prisoners cruelly. Falls out of love w/ girl b/c he can't look at her w/o seeing her dad. That was Ivan's only real love. THEMES: criticizing social rituals, superficial love, Christianity (flogging like crucifixion, prisoner prays), narrator escapes from war and love (parallel w/ AWOL soldier), narrator opts out of violence MISC: feather and flogging are violent pagan symbols, rules at ball can be bent but not in punishment, lots of defamiliarization

TIME: 1828-1910 KNOWN FOR: War and Peace, Anna Karenina, defamiliarization (take normal things and show their strangeness), anti-authority BIO: from Russian aristorcracy (Count), started school for peasant kids w/ pedagogical methods, excommunicated THEMES: against aristocracy, support peasants and animals, Christianity, common man, defamiliarization, adultery

WRITTEN: Chekhov, 1860-1904 SUMMARY: Sweet Olga marries theater owner. Gets super into theater and talks about it all the time. Theater owner dies. A couple months later, she falls in love w/ lumber yard worker and marries him. Gets super into lumber business and never goes to theater. When he's away she hangs out w/ vet. Lumber worker dies. 6 months later, she falls in love w/ vet and has relationship w/ him, but doesn't marry b/c he has a wife (separated) and son. Olga starts talking about vet stuff, but vet gets annoyed. Vet goes to war and Olga alone and sad for awhile. Years later vet comes back w/ son and wife. Olga obsesses over son and takes care of him when parents gone (a lot). Olga gets really into school stuff and learns about islands. Vet comes back. NARRATION: 3rd person THEMES: attachment, exaggeration, absurdity MISC: Chekhov was making fun of Olga, but Tolstoy liked the story b/c he admired Olga's ability to love

WRITTEN: Chekhov, 1860-1904 SUMMARY: Anna marries old Modest Alexei for money for her family. Alexei is super stingy and controlling. Anna is afraid of him and gets no money. Anna sneaks out after dinner to see family most nights. Her dad drinks more. Alexei gives dad money, but also lectures. Alexei tells Anna to buy dress w/ advice from other wives. Anna buys dress on her own. Goes to ball and is huge success. Gets control of marriage, has affairs, spends money freely, gets a life. Kinda ignores family. Alexei wins an award. Now has 3 Annas: around neck, in buttonhole, and wife. NARRATION: 3rd person THEMES: power, money, food, sex, feeling of imprisonment/freedom MISC: Anna unsatisfied financially, w/ food, and sexually. Anna parallels Anna Karenina. Anna on the Neck supposed to be like pain in the neck. Unclear whether Anna is good or bad character, but sympathetic as underdog. 2 party scenes, 2 carriage scenes w/ brothers.

TIME: 1860-1904 KNOWN FOR: plays popular, done w/ method acting BIO: plays staged in Moscow Art Theater, no poetry or novels THEMES: exaggerating things to point out absurdities, twisting ready-made plots, hard to see clear morals

WRITTEN: Bunin, 1870-1953 SUMMARY: Starts at Olya's grave. Olya really pretty and all the boys like her. Drives one classmate to suicide. Has fling w/ Cossack officer, but loses virginity to her principal's brother. Tells principal the brother made her a woman when principal reprimands her for acting too mature. Gets shot by Cossack officer when she shows him diary entry about sex w/ brother. Mourned a lot by one of her teachers. Teacher remembers Olya talking a lot w/ friend about how "light breathing" is attractive quality for a woman, idea from her dad's book. NARRATION: 3rd person, time jumps back and forth THEMES: wasted life, superficiality, poetic superimposition of life and death, youth MISC: not anchored chronologically or plot-wise b/c poetic aspect stops time, "light breathing" is title and last line, lots of wind to emphasize title and flightiness, tsar and principal described as young but w/ gray hair/beard (paradox)

TIME: 1870-1953, before and after Russian Revolution, approaching Modernist KNOWN FOR: first Russian writer to win Nobel Prize, imitated in "youth prose", last big 19th century Russian writer BIO: poor gentry (had to work), left Russia after Bolshevik Revolution, refused Stalin's offer to return, work banned in Russia after emigration but reintroduced (except anti-Soviet stuff) after Thaw THEMES: 20th century focus on image and info, poetic

WRITTEN: Gorky, 1899 SUMMARY: 26 men all work in a bakery. It's super depressing but there's a girl, Tanya, who gets pretzels from them every day and they all love her. Hot soldier starts working w/ them and brags about picking up girls. They dare him to get Tanya. He does, and they're super mean to her. She doesn't really care. NARRATION: 1st person, but narrator never says "I", only "we" THEMES: criticizing collectivistic working class, Freudian stuff (but Freud not alive), vicariousness, sexual tension, Tanya is archetypal strong Russian woman, purity vs. sex MISC: focus on "we" parallels "The Darling," twist on common plot of boy meeting and losing girl (26 instead), bet is win-win for 26 b/c they either win vicariously through soldier or by winning bet, insults at end are a symbolic rape

TIME: 1868-1936, lived through Bolshevik Revolution, Socialist Realism in 1930s KNOWN FOR: #1 Soviet writer BIO: Gorky is pen name meaning "bitter". From middle class, but worked at bottom and portrayed himself as proletariat. Lived among the people and educated himself. Exiled as revolutionary until Bolshevik Revolution when he supported Lenin. Protector of Russian lit until Lenin asked him to leave. Moved to Capri. Stalin gets him to return by blackmail/bribe. Tries to support culture for 4 years until Stalin poisoned him. "26 and 1" represents his anarchist youth. THEMES: oppression, "love the book," supported Soviet and Russian culture, image important

WRITTEN: Chernyshevsky, 1828-1889 SUMMARY: Natasya tells story of how she was saved by doctor. Natasya was a prostitute. She tried to pick up doctor. He said no but she persisted. He brought her home and told her she had bad lungs and would die if she kept drinking (no sex). She's annoyed at first, but he keeps visiting her and eventually pays her debt to brothel. Natasya starts her own better prostitution business, w/ special customers. Pays doctor back. A month later, he professes love. They live together for awhile and are deeply in love. At some point she moves to sewing co-op where she is telling story to other woman. NARRATION: 3rd person from POV of other woman but get thoughts of Natasya through her narration THEMES: romantic reform story, saving the prostitute, idealistic educated protagonist, doctor one of the "new people" MISC: doctor symbolic of curing social ills, women's sewing co-op perfect idealist setting

TIME: 1828-1889 KNOWN FOR: being super radical BIO: wrote "What Can Be Done" in prison THEMES: "new people" fixing social problems, reformation, help the lower classes, Aesopian

WRITTEN: Babel, 1894-1941 SUMMARY: Raisa hires narrator to translate Maupassant for her. She loves Maupassant but her translating sucks. Narrator does translating, and is really good. Raisa falls for narrator b/c of his skills. Narrator goes to Raisa's party and has sex w/ her. Goes home after and sees his roommate asleep w/ Don Quixote. Reads about Maupassant's life. NARRATION: 1st person, narrated by protagonist translator THEMES: flesh, boobs, Maupassant, violence and books, naive bookworm MISC: lots of parts of story come symbolically from Maupassant's stories (Raisa and narrator call each other names of characters, etc.), biography narrator reads is Maupassant's 30th volume

WRITTEN: Babel, 1937 SUMMARY: Group of Russians hanging out, and ask how narrator became a writer. Narrator was obsessed w/ this prostitute, Vera. Saves up money and can finally buy her. He tags along on all her errands all day. When it's time for sex, she gets ready, but he doesn't have a boner, so he tell a story to gain potency. Tells weird sob story about his life as a gay prostitute, since he was young. She feels bad and sees him as a sister. They have sex finally. She won't let him pay. Narrator becomes a writer after b/c it's the first time he's ever been paid for a story. NARRATION: 1st person, narrator is main protagonist THEMES: targeting concept of "saving the prostitute" since Vera doesn't need saving MISC: Vera represents narrator's first love, first sex, experienced woman, mother, sister, equal. Also have weird brother-brother relationship that's kinda homosexual. Vera opposite of stereotypical prostitute: she's familial, businesslike, kind, doesn't need redemption, prepares for sex like a surgeon.

TIME: 1894-1941, during Bolsheviks KNOWN FOR: first Jewish writer, popular in Russian lit b/c wrote in Russian BIO: From merchant class family in Odessa (Jewish area). Dad disapproved of him, so moved to Petersburg. Admired Gorky, started portraying himself as working class. Joined Red Army in bloody civil war to reunite Russia. Wrote about army and almost got in trouble but Gorky said book was pro-army. Problems w/ Stalin b/c Stalin was anti-Semitic. Misunderstood by contemporaries, so some later work rejected (but he got paid in advance). Couldn't publish during 1930s. Arrested and executed for knowing wrong person. THEMES: word vs. world, violence vs. books, tried to make Russian lit happier (leaves out bad parts of "The Fare" in "Guy de..."), metaliterary stories about writers, hedonism, sex, humor

WRITTEN: Romanov, 1885-1938 SUMMARY: College girl writes letter about her crush. She always thought he was hot and nice. Everyone but her in college doesn't believe in manners, beauty, or relationships. They cuss a lot, everything's really dirty and gross, and everyone has open relationships and sleeps around. Her crush finally asks her to hang out and they take a walk. She buys a cherry blossom, and he thinks it's stupid. He tries to kiss her but she stops him because she wants to be special, not just another girl. He talks about his free love philosophy and she gets annoyed. He starts staring at another girl. She leaves. Later she feels lonely and left out though, so she goes to his dorm. It's super dirty and he's afraid his roommate will come home, so they have to have sex fast and in the dark so she doesn't see the the old food and cigarette butts. She leaves right after and finds the crumpled cherry blossom on her shirt. She's upset, but it's a nice night at least. NARRATION: 1st person, narrator is protagonist writing a letter THEMES: lust vs. love, beauty, corruption, old vs. new values, criticizes new ideas, 2 sides to everything, peer pressure, hidden criticism of Communism MISC: Title refers to "lust w/o romance." Story pays respect to gov't while criticizing its youth. Beauty outside college supposed to compliment gov't, but dirt inside kinda comment on corruption. Doesn't use bad language in narrative, which would make more sense.

TIME: 1885-1938, born pre-Revolution but found place in USSR KNOWN FOR: short stories very popular and passed Soviet censorship BIO: Came from land-owning gentry. Satirized Bolshevik gov't but never repressed b/c satire was hidden so well. THEMES: sex, corruption, satire of minor elements of Bolshevik life, Aesopian criticism of gov't, outward show of support for Soviets

WRITTEN: Zoshchenko, 1920-1958 SUMMARY: Ivanovich explains why he doesn't like women who wear hats, have small dogs, and gold teeth. He sees them as aristocrats, and he didn't like the one he dated once. At first, he visited her house pretending she needed help, but it was a joke. They took lots of walks. She asked if they could do something else, like go to the theater. He gets 2 tickets in different seats from gov't. They go, and he doesn't even pay attention to play. At intermission, he offers to buy her a pastry. She takes a fourth pastry and he flips out and tries to put it back because he doesn't think he has money. Cashier won't let him because she took a bite. He ends up having enough money, but she's too embarrassed to eat it. Some rando eats it instead. HE leaves her, and now doesn't like aristocrats. NARRATION: technically 3rd person, but Ivanovich starts narrating the story halfway through first sentence (skaz). THEMES: theater, can't control life w/ numbers, food phobia (Ivanovich never gets any), fear of sophisticated women, Oedipus, money, humiliation, existential problem w/ society, problems w/ language MISC: Parallels w/ autobiography. Lady not really aristocratic. Humiliation w/ cashier is "Overcoat" moment. Characters uncultured.

WRITTEN: Zoshchenko, 1920-1958 SUMMARY: Man and woman in a relationship. He asks her to sign a contract saying he'll love her longer/more if she promises not to ask him for anything if she ever gets pregnant. She signs it and he gets it notarized. She has his baby, and goes to court for child support. He shows the receipt. Judge says receipt is valid, but Soviet law supports child, so dad has to pay. He pays. NARRATION: 1st person, narrator is not a character in story THEMES: failure to take on society, can't control life w/ numbers MISC: uncultured characters, man's name means penis in Russian

TIME: 1894-1958, started writing 1920 KNOWN FOR: short, simple, realistic language; viewed as ideal Soviet writer (not really); "Zoshchenko speech" BIO: Gentry, but poor b/c dad was an artist. Did lots of different jobs. Traditional, but embraced Soviet enough to publish. Fought in war and gassed, so sick for most of life. Cleaned up writing in 1930s to appease Stalin. Named #2 hostile writer in 1946. THEMES: psychoanalysis, mortality, health, autobiographical, Gogol, fear of environment, losing clothes

WRITTEN: Nabokov, 1899-1977 SUMMARY: Victor sees Nina in Fialta and remembers the affair they've had going for 17 years. They hang out for awhile. Victor remembers how they met at a group theater outing when they were young, during a snowball fight when he dropped his flashlight. They walk around and see lots of circus posters around, and then they go to lunch w/ her husband. Victor remembers all the reasons he hates her husband. Then he remembers all their other meetings. He and Nina take a walk. He professes his love. She doesn't reciprocate. A couple days later he finds out she got hit by a circus truck and died. NARRATION: 1st person, narrated by Victor as a series of flashbacks and brief action in present. Action comes from time jumps. THEMES: mortality, other-worldliness, love MISC:Lots of foreshadowing (gloomy weather, posters everywhere, death song). Plays around w/ words a lot. Ferdinand (husband) collects things but leaves them behind.

TIME: 1899-1977, born 100 yrs after Pushkin KNOWN FOR: Lolita, one of most studied writers, translations BIO: From gentry family, spoke Russian, French, English. Started as poet, then short stories. Fled from Russia to Germany for awhile, then went to France and Germany in 1937 and 1940 b/c wife was Jewish. Taught Russian lit at Cornell. Hated USA but liked butterfly-catching. Moved to Switzerland w/ money from Lolita. Unpublishable in USSR until 1987. THEMES: crossword-puzzle style writing, wordplay, mortality, otherworldliness

WRITTEN: Platonov, 1899-1951 SUMMARY: Frossy lives alone w/ her dad b/c her husband went away to work as an engineer for the Communist cause. Her dad is old and loves to feel needed, so he works as a sub engineer at the trains to feel important. Frossy super lonely so she goes to work at station for the night. Makes a friend, and they go dancing together. Dances w/ some guy and misses husband so leaves. Friend takes letter from husband to Frossy to read it and Frossy never gets it. Frossy gets depressed b/c no more letters. Gets a job at the post office, but neglects school. Sends fake letter to husband saying she's dying. He comes home and she won't leave his side for 11-12 days. She wakes up and he's gone away again back to work. She's sad, so she hangs out w/ the little boy that lives upstairs. NARRATION: 3rd person THEMES: distance, trains, music, machines vs. emotion, communication (or lack of it), enchantment (dad and trains), failed disenchantment (Fro can't disenchant husbands from being machine-like), Communism, unromantic, denounce humanitarians, fragmentation (Fro depicted as "2 legs") MISC: Fro is damsel in distress abandoned by hero. Story like "The Darling." Husband is "humanitarian" who doesn't actually do anything helpful.

TIME: 1899-1951 KNOWN FOR: admired by peers BIO: Born into proletariat. Supports Communism at first, but starts satirizing it in his writing. Stopped from publishing, but publishes for limited audience. Not arrested, but can't publish. Becomes war correspondent. Son arrested, gets TB in jail, gives it to dad after released and dad dies. THEMES: anti-Communist, against collectivism, life after war, suppressed distopian stuff, charming failure, uses voice of uneducated Communist character trying to use big words/ideas and failing (embodies failure of Communism), anti-production

WRITTEN: Aksenov, 1965 SUMMARY: Chess master and more working class guy sitting on a train. Worker recognizes master and tries to get him to play chess w/ him. Master doesn't really want to, but kinda scared of worker, so agrees. Master doesn't want to win at first, just trying to keep the board in order b/c he plays wholistically and sees the board as his life. Master has flashbacks of life in concentration camps after every move of game. Gets checkmate but doesn't say anything. Worker guy "wins" the game. Master gives him a gold medal and engraves it right then and there w/ his portable engraving kit. NARRATION: 3rd person, biased toward master THEMES: class differences, individual vs. "type," chess symbol of combat, train symbol of isolation/journey, chaos vs. harmony, egg symbolizes perfect/fragile/white/potential life, egg's opaqueness symbol of ambiguity, invasion of privacy, worker symbol of archetypal Soviet hero, master symbol of humane values, beauty dissolves evil, intellectual vs. uneducated MISC: gold medal huge exaggeration b/c gold not allowed at time and nobody carries around engraving tools

TIME: 1932-2009 KNOWN FOR: helped compile work of a bunch of Russian authors called Metropol and got it published in US in a provocative coup against USSR, Island of Crimea BIO: Parents were communists who got exiled. Raised by relatives but joined parents in Siberia after Stalin died. Became doctor. Published Aesopian stories in Youth magazine 1965. Had to stop publishing w/ many other writers 1968. Helped w/ Metropol. Emigrated to US in 1980, taught at USC, and published less good novels there. Returned to Russia after Gorbachev reforms and died famous. THEMES: pro-West, loved CA, Aesopian stuff against Communism and Soviet gov't

WRITTEN: Solzhenitsyn, 1918-2008 SUMMARY: Zotov is super sincere, loyal, brainwashed Communist lieutenant after Hitler surprise attacks USSR in WW2. Has pregnant wife. She's far away, but he's being faithful. Has problems w/ girl in his office and lady at old lodging (she strips for him), but friends w/ Polina at the post office. Discusses shooting of stragglers w/ an old man. He supports shooting b/c he took an oath, but old man has taken lots of oaths over years and thinks shooting was wrong. 2 hungry soldiers come in and Zotov tries and fails to feed them. Tveritinov comes w/o papers and stuff and Zotov believes him at first, but then thinks he's a spy and reports him. Tveritinov taken away quickly. Zotov feels bad and asks about him but doesn't get a good answer. NARRATION: 3rd person, from Zotov's point of view THEMES: patriotism, obedience/conformity vs. conscience, Communism, idealism, dogma, everyday people doing bad things, brainwashing, how can a nice guy sentence someone he likes to death to follow dogma, the system kills MISC: Zotov kinda like "The Station Master," can see Solzhenitsyn in both Zotov (military officer) and Tveritinov (innocent accused)

TIME: 1918-2008 KNOWN FOR: book about life in Russian concentration camps, Gulag Archipelago, Nobel Prize, now an official Russian writer, supported by Putin BIO: Was artillery commander in WW2. Arrested for writing private letter criticizing Stalin and got 8 yrs hard labor. Pardoned 3 yrs after release and allowed to live in Moscow. Became dissident secret writer after release. Book about life in prison exempted from censorship by Kruschev. Blackmailed secret police to publish Gulag Archipelago and won Nobel Prize for it (couldn't leave to get it). Sent to Germany, moved to Zurich then Vermont for 20 yrs. Russian citizenship restored 1990 and he moved back 1994. THEMES: conservative, Russian nationalist, anti-Soviet, not democratic, prison, sympathetic portrayal of characters he is criticizing

WRITTEN: Siniavsky-Terts, 1925-1997 SUMMARY: Andrei is movable cactus-like plant w/ 4 arms, each w/ an eye. At dry cleaners and sees hunchback. Goes home and hangs out w/ Veronica, but it's weird because she's in love w/ him. He tries to friend zone her and it doesn't work. She strips to show him what he's missing, he studies her scientifically, she tries to get him to have sex w/ her, and he escapes. Goes to visit hunchback from laundromat. Hunchback's wife won't admit he's a hunchback. Alien thinks hunchback is also an alien pretending to be a hunchback. Hunchback is actually a hunchback and gets annoyed w/ alien. Alien goes home. Gets sick. Asks Veronica for water but can't drink it b/c he's actually a plant and needs to be watered. Remembers how he came to Earth and hid his leaves and stuff. When he feels better he escapes to woods to die alone. NARRATION: 1st person, narrated by Andrei THEMES: friendship (other hunchback), romance (Veronica), alienness, being put off by another culture's women, we pretend to be different than we really are, defamiliarization (description of body), outcasts, fitting in, not political MISC: defamiliarization also big w/ Tolstoy (After the Ball), friendship and romance are 2 separate subplots in story

TIME: 1925-1997 KNOWN FOR: major provocative writer (like Solzhenitsyn but w/ opposite views), 2 personalities as Siniavsky the official critic/professor and Terts the subversive writer BIO: Spent time in camps for his political views but still published 2 books in prison about Pushkin and Gogol by writing them as letters to wife. Arrested b/c got caught publishing his Aesopian works by self-distributing and sending abroad. Emigrated to France and taught at Sorbonne (didn't speak French). Chose pseudonym of Abram Terts b/c name of Jewish thief (promote outlaw image) THEMES: Aesopian, split personality, admired Pushkin and Gogol, defamiliarization