The Irony of the Ideal

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.