The Irony of the Ideal ─ Paradoxes of Russian Literature

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.

Mikhail Epstein is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Cultural Theory and Russian Literature at Emory University (USA) and Honorary Professor of Durham University (UK). His research interests include new directions in the humanities, contemporary philosophy and religion, Russian literature, and postmodernism. He has authored 30 books, and his works have been translated into 23 languages.