New Books In Literary Studies

In The Irony of the Ideal: Paradoxes of Russian Literature (Academic Studies Press, 2018), Mikhail Epstein offers strategies on how to engage with texts in the current continuum. Based on the subversion of linearity as a principle component of chronological construction of literary phenomena, Epstein’s new book emphasizes the idea of text as a node or cluster that includes and incorporates multiple elements which intersect and collaborate, producing a diversity of cultural/literary echoes. To proceed with these lines, Mikhail Epstein re-visits Russian literature from the perspectives of paradoxes that arise when multiple views and points are considered. Starting with the exploration of Pushkin’s works, this book, at first glance, may give the impression that the author undertakes a chronological approach. However, Pushkin is situated alongside Goethe: Epstein does not simply offer comparative explorations; he seeks to outline matrixes that contribute to the illumination of paradoxes that shape the