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The
Russian Prospero
The Creative Universe
of Viacheslav Ivanov
Robert Bird
"An ambitious quantum leap in the study of Viacheslav Ivanov's
work. Serious, original, and important."–Alexis Klimoff, Vassar College
Viacheslav Ivanov (1866–1949), the
central intellectual force in Russian modernism, achieved through
his work an original synthesis of Christianity, Platonism, and
the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. His powerful intellect
exerted an immeasurable influence in modernist Russia and the
early Soviet Union, and after emigrating to Italy in 1924 he
played an important role in intellectual debates in Western Europe
between the wars. In recent years, Ivanov's manifold contributions
have been recognized in all major aspects of Russian culture,
including poetry, literary theory, philosophy, and theology.
In The Russian Prospero, Robert Bird uncovers the foundations
of Ivanov's poetic and theoretical universe, traces its evolution,
and explores its connections to cultural and intellectual currents
in international modernism. Blending a close reading of Ivanov's
work with a thoughtful analysis of his place within twentieth-century
thought, Bird finds that Ivanov's ecstatic creative psychology
leads directly to a consideration of history as a continuum of
human interpretive activity, and to a conception of art as a
historical force. He emphasizes and dramatizes Ivanov's quest
to harness the power of art and apply it to concrete life-situations.
It is the dilemma of Prospero, who must liberate his attendant
spirit Ariel in order to restore full sovereignty over his own
creative self and to regain ethical agency. The productive tension
that resulted from Ivanov's struggle was a remarkable force in
Russian modernism and remains a powerful spur for our own reflections
on modernity.
"Bird's The Russian Prospero will be read and reread
by anyone interested in the Russian 'Silver Age' and its legacy.
This study of Viacheslav Ivanov and his world is the most ambitious
and accomplished to appear in any language. Combining lucid explanatory
commentary with ingenious interpretation, Bird expertly guides
the reader through all genres of Ivanov's multifaceted writings."–Michael
Wachtel, Princeton University
Robert Bird
is associate professor of Russian
literature at the University of Chicago. He is the author of
Andrei Rublev and the translator of Viacheslav Ivanov's
Selected Essays, which won the AATSEEL Translation Prize
in 2002.
For more information contact
our publicity manager, phone: (608) 263-0734, email: publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu
Of related interest
Erotic Utopia:
The Decadent Imagination in Russia's Fin de Siècle
Olga Matich
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November 2006
LC: 2006008592 PG
368 pp. 6 x 9 1 figure
ISBN: 0-299-21830-9 Cloth $50.00 s
ISBN-13: 978-0-299-21830-0
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