Text Counter Text. Rereadings in Russian Literary History.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994 (cloth), 1995 (paper). 370 pp.

Alexander  ZHOLKOVSKY

CONTENTS

Introduction: On Close Rereading

PART I: OEUVRES AND INTERTEXTS
1. Rereading Gogol’s Miswritten Passages
Skaz, Gogol, and his characters. Gogol’s identity, writing, and reception. Selected Passages and the importance of writing badly. Grandeur, information, and media manipulation. Writing about writing.

2. Through Revolution’s Looking-Glass: Tolstoy into Zoshchenko
Theater and truth. Property vs theft. “Good” ideas–“bad” writing. Cultural roles.

PART II: STRUCTURES AND VARIATIONS
3. Before and After “After the Ball:” Variations on the Theme of Courtship, Corpses, and Culture
Leo Tolstoy–1903. Commentary: from a reading to variations. Mikhail Zoshchenko–1929. Eugenia Ginzburg–1977. Commentary: back to stereotypes. “After the Ball” as folktale.

4. A Study in Framing: Pushkin, Bunin, Nabokov, and Theories of Story and Discourse
Framing and rereading around 1917. “The Stationmaster”: bracketing reality. “Gentle Breathing”: destabilizing the narrative worldview. “Gentle Breathing”: shift of focus. Commentary and a further comparison: “Spring in Fialta” .

PART III: LINEAGE AND CONVERSION
5. De- and Reconstructing a Classic: “I Loved You Once…” by Joseph Brodsky
“I Loved You…”: a map of rewritings. The cluster: thematic and formal characteristics. The Sixth sonnet as parody: Brodsky rereading Pushkin. The Sixth sonnet as a Brodsky anthology. Pushkin a la Brodsky.  Appendix.

6. Intertextual Malgre Lui: The Case of Limonov
The beauty mark and the ‘I’s of the beholder. Limonov at the literary Olympics.  Appendix.

PART IV: TEXTS IN DIALOGUE
7. A Duet in Three Movements: Bulgakov – Olesha – Bulgakov
Heart of a Dog.  Envy. The Master and Margarita.

8. The Dynamics of Adaptation: Pasternak’s Second Birth
Pasternak and the early thirties. “I Want to Go Home”: themes and strategies. The four reasons.

PART V: MULTIPLE READINGS
9. A Dystopian “Newdream” Fivefold: Analyzing Ilf’s and Petrov’s Closet Monarchist
Ilf and Petrov and pluralist reading. The Bender act. The Dream genre. The adaptaion game.The dystopian masterplot. The “Newdream”.

10. The Codes and Contexts of Platonov’s “Fro.”
Structure. Intertexts: Сlassical. Intertexts: Сontemporary.

Afterword

Notes
Works Cited
Index