Hidden in Plain View: Narrative and Creative Potentials in 'War and Peace'

by Gary Saul Morson

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 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Literary Criticism

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Gary Saul Morson is an American literary critic and Slavist. He is particularly known for his scholarly work on the great Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. He is Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities at Northwestern University.

Reviews

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

God-tier lit crit. Comprehensible, illuminating, never weird or Freudian. Love you Gary! Couldn't have read War and Peace without you.

[Emily Andrews]

When I grow up, I would like to be Gary Saul Morson.

[Daniel Mata Di Giuseppe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing resource for anyone undertaking War and Peace! Better to read it after you are done reading W&P itself, particularly if you want to experience what Morson calls "polyphony of incident" in full force. Give it a chance!

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Gary Saul Morson and love this book. This is essential reading once you've finished reading War and Peace. The first chapter is interesting, but less accessible than the rest of the book. I recommend starting with chapter 2 and then coming back to chapter 1 later.

[Ravi Nuxoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morson succeeded in greatly enhancing my enjoyment of "War and Peace". If this book has a weakness it is that it could stand to discuss some of the most meaningful passages in the book at greater length than it does.