Jacob's Ladder: Kabbalistic Allegory in Russian Literature

Focusing primarily on the close study of literary works presented in the broad cultural and historical context, Jacob’s Ladder discusses the reflection of kabbalistic allegory in Russian literature and provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the perception of Kabbalah in Russian consciousness. Aptekman investigates the questions of when, how and why Kabbalah has been used in Russian literary texts from Pre-Romanticism to Modernism and what particular role it played in the larger context of the Russian literary tradition. The correct understanding of this liaison helps the reader to clarify many enigmatic images in Russian literary works of the last two centuries and to understand the roots of a particular cultural falsification that played an important role in the anti-Semitic mythology of the twentieth century.

Marina Aptekman is an assistant professor of Russian Language and Literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She received her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Brown University in 2003. Her recent publications include articles “Forward to the Past or Two Radical Views on Russian Nationalist Future: Pyotr Krasnov’s Behind the Thistle and Vladimir Sorokin’s Day of Oprichnik” (SEEJ), and “Kabbalah, Judeo-Masonic Conspiracy and Post-Soviet Literary Discourse: from Political Tool to Virtual Reality.”(Russian Review).