No Place Like Home: The Literary Artist and Russia's Search for Cultural Indentity

Explores the way that four major works of Russian literature -- Gogol's Dead Souls, Goncharov's Oblomov, Zamiatin's We, and Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita -- define a cultural "self" for the Russian people. Focusing on the deep cultural currents that pull Russian society in contradictory ways, Noplace Like Home also explores the writer's struggle to overcome these tensions through the creation of a literary utopia. Noplace Like Home uses four masterpieces of Russian literature -- Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov, Evgenii Zamiatin's We, and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita -- to show the successes and failings in Russia's search for home and self. Interdisciplinary in spirit, Noplace Like Home introduces Russian culture for the first time to the field of "home studies", which explores human identity in terms of man's relationship with domestic space. This broad social context, together with general cultural patterns expressed in the novels, encourages readers to consider even the most current events in Russian society -- where identity and stability are again key issues -- in terms of "home", "homelessness", and "noplace". "The book is full of considered and original thinking as it utilizes the works of highly respected scholars in the field. It constitutes an admirable blend of received truths and original thinking, making its claims hard to refute". -- Stanley J. Rabinowitz, Amherst College