The Broken Frame: The Anti-Tradition of Russian Literature

FAIN: FT-13959-78

Gary S. Morson
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL 60208-0001)

Tolstoy described Russian literature as a tradition of formally anomalous works, works that cannot be subsumed under Western generic classifications (i.e. novel, poem, or tale). This study will probe the key problem of Russian literary criticism, define the conventions that do govern this tradition of formally anomalous works, and to describe how and why such a tradition--or anti-tradition developed.