Background
Erlich, Victor was born on November 22, 1914 in Petrograd, Russia. Son of Henryk and Sophie (Dubnov) Erlich. came to the United States, 1942, naturalized, 1943.
(The period before 1917 was a revolutionary one for Russia...)
The period before 1917 was a revolutionary one for Russian literature, marked by the innovations and experimentations of modernism. With the Bolshevik seizure of power, a parallel process of drastic social innovation and experimentation began. How did revolution in the arts and revolution in society and politics relate to one another? Victor Erlich, an eminent authority on modern Slavic culture, takes up this question in Modernism and Revolution, providing an appraisal of Russian literature during its most turbulent years. Probing the salient literary responses to the upheaval that changed the face of Russia, Erlich offers a new perspective on this period of artistic ferment. He begins by revisiting the highlights of early 20th-century Russian poetry - including the works of such masters as Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Pasternak - and goes on to examine the major prose writers of the first post-revolutionary decade. In an inquiry that ranges over poetry, criticism, and artistic prose, Erlich explores the work of, among others, Symbolists Bely, Blok and Ivanov, Futurists Khlebnikov and Mayakovsky, Formalists Jakobson and Shklovsky, the novelists Pilnyak and Zamyatin, the short story master Babel, and the humourist Zoshchenko. He delineates a complex and ambiguous relationship between Russian literary modernism and the emerging Soviet state. Here, following the artistic experimentation and cultural diversity begun early in the century, we witness a trend toward regimentation and conformity as the literary avant garde's "modus vivendi" with the new regime becomes increasingly precarious. As this regime recedes into history, along with the passions and prejudices it aroused, the accomplishments and failures of writers caught up in its early revolutionary fervour can at last be seen for what they were. From a perspective formed over a lifetime of study of Russian literature, Victor Erlich helps us look clearly, judiciously and deeply into this long obscured part of the literary past.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674580702/?tag=2022091-20
Erlich, Victor was born on November 22, 1914 in Petrograd, Russia. Son of Henryk and Sophie (Dubnov) Erlich. came to the United States, 1942, naturalized, 1943.
Master of Arts, Free Polish University, Warsaw, 1937. Doctor of Philosophy, Columbia University, 1951. Master of Arts (honorary), Yale University, 1963.
Assistant literature editor, New Life magazine, Warsaw, 1937-1939; research writer, Yiddish Encyclopedia, 1942-1943; from assistant professor to professor Slavic literature and languages, U. Washington, 1949-1963; Bensinger professor Russian literature, Yale University, 1963-1985; department chairman Slavic languages, Yale University, 1963-1968, 78-81; professor emeritus, Yale University, since 1985; Delaware congress, Federation Modern Language and Literature, 1957; Delaware congress, International Congress Slavists, Sofia, 1963; Delaware congress, International Congress Slavists, Warsaw, 1973; Delaware congress, Congress International Comparative Literature Association, Belgrade, 1967.
(The period before 1917 was a revolutionary one for Russia...)
(Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)
(Hardcover.)
Served with Army of the United States, 1943-1945, European Theatre of Operations. Member American Association Advancement Slavic Studies (vice president), Modern Language Association (executive council), International Association Slavic Languages and Lits. (executive council 1957-1962), American Association of University Professors, American Comparative Literature Association, American Society Aesthetics.
Married Iza Sznejerson, February 27, 1940. Children: Henry Anthony, Mark Leo.