Russian Literature

For most English-speaking readers, Russian literature consists of a small number of individual writers – nineteenth-century masters such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev – or a few well-known works – Chekhov's plays, Brodsky's poems, and perhaps Master and Margarita and Doctor Zhivago from the twentieth century. The medieval period, as well as the brilliant tradition of Russian lyric poetry from the eighteenth century to the present, are almost completely terra incognita, as are the complex prose experiments of Nikolai Gogol, Nikolai Leskov, Andrei Belyi, and Andrei Platonov. Furthermore, those writers who have made an impact are generally known outside of the contexts…