Discovering Russian Literature discussion

I was thinking that since we are talking about mostly 19th century literary writers (at least for now) we could talk a little about the time period, The Golden Age (roughly what it's called according to my Russian Russian Lit. Prof. Yes, a Russian teaching Russian Literature).

Feel free to discuss and/or debate about this era :)

Thanks for starting such interesting topic Val, I asume you mean 19th century in Russia or in general? I admit of that age most I've read are Victorians, english authors.
I'll get more informed to follow the discussion :)

In the 19th century Russian literature underwent an astonishing Golden Age starting with with the poet Alexander Pushkin who is also known as 'The father of Russian literature.' Other key figures were Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I think Chekhov belongs to the 2nd Generation. If I'm correct they all belong to the Romantic Age, right?

Patrice wrote: "Yes, I think they are all Romantic.

Before Pushkin I think French was used as the language of literature."

I read on the intro to Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter that Pushkin was considered the father of russian lit because was the first to write novels in that language. I'll do some research on writers in Russian "pre-Pushkin" any suggestion-help will be wellcome. Tell me the titles and I'll add to bookshelf.

Patrice wrote: "I went to a lecture on Anna Karenina a couple of years ago. That prof said that Pushkin invented literary Russian. I think he even invented some words.

I was taking another class, with a Russi..."

I find a title called "Poor Liza" by Karamzin. I asume it's who your prof mention. I'll add to bookshelf and search for any edition in spanish

Patrice wrote: "I went to a lecture on Anna Karenina a couple of years ago.... was taking another class, with a Russian prof. I asked what he thought of this idea? He said that Karamazin (sp?) was the beginning of Russian literature..."

Yes, Brothers Karamazov does hold it's place doesn't it but I've heard Dostoyevsky himself had stated that "We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'." Then one of the most celebrated works of fiction is Tolstoy's War and Peace. So I'm still learning. If others know some info please share.

Yes, I will be reading War and Peace after my North and South with Gaskell.

Yes, Karamzin and his "Poor Liza". Not Karamazov.
I would not agree, that Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol are romantics. Even Pushkin - only his early work could be considered rthis way. Certainly not "Onegin".
There were some writers and poets before Pushkin who wrote in Russian (Karamzin is one of them). But Pushkin created a language which allowed other writers to express themself. Before him "literary" Russian was very old-fashioned and heavy and very different from the spoken language.

N.M.Karamzin (1766-1826) is regarded by some philologists as a writer, whose book, Letters of a Russian Traveller,became the beginning of Russian literature. But none other than Pushkin is universally recognized the father of Russian literature, while Karamzin was mainly the reformer of Russian language- as well as Pushkin, though. Karamzin followed the example of standard French, its grammar and syntax, he himself coined a lot of words, which we use nowadays. His most famous story Poor Liza introduced Russian readers to sentimentalism, a new literary school.

Before Karamzin and Pushkin reforms,there had been writers in Russia, and they wrote in the native language, but it was abounded in Church Slavonic words being too inflexible and awkward.

"Although Pushkin is considered the central representative of The Age of Romanticism in Russian literature, he can't be labelled unequivocally as a Romantic." His works represent "a path from neo-Classicism through Romanticism to Realism", and all his creative work is the evidence of this point of view. A true poet romantic was Zhukovsky.

When I first wanted to read some Russian literature, I didn't know where to start or go about finding out more. Fortunately, google helped me, and I found this volume, which I have only skimmed.

http://books.google.com/books?id=mI5L...