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Product Identifiers

PublisherStanford University Press

ISBN-100804717184

ISBN-139780804717182

eBay Product ID (ePID)917756

Product Key Features

Number of Pages336 Pages

Publication NameHidden in Plain View : Narrative and Creative Potentials in 'war and Peace'

LanguageEnglish

SubjectGeneral, Russian & Former Soviet Union

Publication Year1988

TypeTextbook

AuthorGary Saul Morson

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight14.4 Oz

Item Length8.5 in

Item Width5.5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN87-006471

Reviews"Perhaps the single most intelligent reading of War and Peace we have in English." --William Mills Todd III, Stanford University, "Perhaps the single most intelligent reading of War and Peace we have in English." -William Mills Todd III, Stanford University, "Perhaps the single most intelligent reading ofWar and Peacewe have in English." -William Mills Todd III, Stanford University

Dewey Edition19

Dewey Decimal891.73/3

SynopsisFor decades, the formal peculiarities of War and Peace disturbed Russian and Western critics, who attributed both the anomalous structure and the literary power of the book to Tolstoy's "primitive," unruly genius. Using that critical history as a starting point, this volume recaptures the overwhelming sense of strangeness felt by the work's first readers and thereby illuminates Tolstoy's theoretical and narratological concerns.The author demonstrates that the formal peculiarities of War and Peace were deliberate, designed to elude what Tolstoy regarded as the falsifying constraints of all narratives, both novelistic and historical. Developing and challenging the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin, Morson explores Tolstoy's account of the work's composition in light of various myths of the creative process. He proposes a theory of "creation by potential" that incorporates Tolstoy's main concerns: the "openness" of each historical moment; the role of chance in history and within narrative patterns; and the efficacy of ordinary events, "hidden in plain view," in shaping history and individual psychology. In his reading of Tolstoy, he demonstrates how we read literary works within the "penumbral text" of associated theories of creativity., For decades, the formal peculiarities of War and Peace disturbed Russian and Western critics, who attributed both the anomalous structure and the literary power of the book to Tolstoy's "primitive," unruly genius. Using that critical history as a starting point, this volume recaptures the overwhelming sense of strangeness felt by the work's first readers and thereby illuminates Tolstoy's theoretical and narratological concerns. The author demonstrates that the formal peculiarities of War and Peace were deliberate, designed to elude what Tolstoy regarded as the falsifying constraints of all narratives, both novelistic and historical. Developing and challenging the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin, Morson explores Tolstoy's account of the work's composition in light of various myths of the creative process. He proposes a theory of "creation by potential" that incorporates Tolstoy's main concerns: the "openness" of each historical moment; the role of chance in history and within narrative patterns; and the efficacy of ordinary events, "hidden in plain view," in shaping history and individual psychology. In his reading of Tolstoy, he demonstrates how we read literary works within the "penumbral text" of associated theories of creativity.