Goncharov's Oblomov

by Diment, Galya

• ISBN13: 9780810114050
• ISBN10: 0810114054
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-04-29
• Publisher: Northwestern Univ Pr

Summary

No other novel has been used to describe the "Russian mentality" or "Russian soul" as frequently as Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov, first published in 1859. This guide will enable readers to appreciate fully both the remarkable talent of this Russian writer and his masterpiece. The contributors to this volume begin from the premise that perhaps more than any other Russian writer of the nineteenth century, Goncharov needs rereadings and reevaluations. Accordingly, this volume balances the older, more traditional interpretations of Goncharov's most famous novel with the newer, more probing ones. All the essays were written specifically for this volume and are published here for the first time. The volume also includes an exhaustive introduction, many autobiographical materials, and letters never before translated into English. The closing section features an annotated bibliography.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii	(2)
A Note on Transliteration	ix
I. INTRODUCTION The Precocious Talent of Ivan Goncharov	3	(48)
Galya Diment
II. CRITICISM	51	(88)
"That Blessed State": Western and Soviet Views of Infantilism in Oblomov	51	(17)
Alexandar Mihailovic
Mistaken Identities and Compatible Couples in Oblomov	68	(9)
Karl D. Kramer
Questions of Heroism in Goncharov's Oblomov	77	(13)
Beth Holmgren
Wombs, Tombs, and Mother Love: A Freudian Reading of Goncharov's Oblomov	90	(20)
John Givens
Oblomov's Consuming Passion: Food, Eating, and the Search for Communion	110	(29)
Ronald D. LeBlanc
III. PRIMARY SOURCES	139	(50)
Correspondence Relating to Oblomov	139	(23)
Miscellaneous Prose	162	(27)
IV. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY	189	(6)
Contributors	195