Book Discussion: Silhouettes of Russian Writers: Literary and Philosophical Essays, by Yuli Aikhenvald, trans. Tatyana Gershkovich and Stephen H. Blackwell

Session Submission Type: Book Discussion Roundtable

Brief Description

Yuli Aikhenvald was one of the most important critics of the early 20th century and in the emigration after 1917, but his subjectivist, immanent criticism was swept aside by the rising trends of Formalism, Structuralism, Psychoanalysis, and other scientistic approaches to literary experience. This collection of essays demonstrates both Aikhenvald's philosophical acuity (he trained as a philosopher and translated Schopenhauer, and was secretary of Voprosy filosofii i psikhologii), and his enriching, person-based theory of artistic creation and experience. Crucial for today's efforts to redefine and strengthen awareness of the value of literature as art, and the significance of the audience's work, Aikhenvald's essays both theorize and perform an ideal of treating art not just seriously, but also ecstatically. Aikhenvald demonstrates that the work and the work's recipient are centers of moral activity, with artists and readers fully responsible for their creations and their responses. This model for a "living" aesthetic practice can inform new approaches to pedagogy and research, informed by the best parts of a forgotten tradition from over a century ago. Essays on Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, as well as the metaphysics of poshlost, criticism as a cultural phenomenon, and the human need for idleness round out the collection and illustrate the breadth of Aikhenvald's thought. Panelists will also address how Aikhenvald relates to the neo-idealist tradition of "lichnost'" and its modern developments.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 19th Century

Chair

• Stephen Blackwell, U of Tennessee

Roundtable Speakers

• Caryl Emerson, Princeton U

• Tatyana Gershkovich, Carnegie Mellon U

• Randall Allen Poole, College of St. Scholastica

• Justin McCabe Weir, Harvard U

• Alina Wyman, New College of Florida

Session Manager

• Nicole Harry, UNC at Chapel Hill