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• Winner of Winner, Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studie.

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Full Product Details

Author:   Irina Paperno
Publisher:   Cornell University Press
Imprint:   Cornell University Press
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9781501725159

ISBN 10:   1501725157
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   15 July 2018
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"Introduction Chapter 1. ""So That I Could Easily Read Myself"": Tolstoy's Early Diaries Tolstoy Starts a Diary—The Moral Vision of Self and the Temporal Order of Narrative—What Is Time? Cultural Precedents—“A History of Yesterday”— Time and Narrative—The Dream: The Hidden Recesses of Time—What Am I? The Young Tolstoy Defines Himself—What Am I? Cultural Precedents Interlude: Between Personal Documents and Fiction From Diaries to Childhood: Tolstoy Becomes a Writer (1852)—“I Think I Will Never Write Again”: Tolstoy Attempts to Renounce Literature (1859)—“I . . . Don’t Even Think about the Accursed Lit-t-terature and Lit-t-terateurs”: Tolstoy Renounces Literature Again (1870); and Again (1874–75) Chapter 2. “To Tell One’s Faith Is Impossible. . . . How to Tell That Which I Live By. I’ll Tell You, All the Same. . . .” Tolstoy in His Correspondence “What Is My Life? What Am I?”: Tolstoy’s Philosophical Dialogue with Nikolai Strakhov—“I Wish that You, Instead of Reading Anna Kar [ enina ], Would Finish It. . . .”—“In the Form of Catechism,” “In the Form of a Dialogue”—To Tell One’s Life—Rousseau and His Profession/Confession—The Parting of Ways: Tolstoy Writes His Confession, and Strakhov Continues to Confess in His Letters to Tolstoy Chapter 3. Tolstoy’s Confession : What Am I? Tolstoy Publishes his Confession—The Conversion Narrative: Excursus on the Genre—Tolstoy’s Confession : Step by Step—Tolstoy’s Confession Related to Rousseau’s and Augustine’s—After Confession: “Presenting Christ’s Teaching as Something New after 1,800 Years of Christianity”—Coda: Tolstoy’s Influence Chapter 4. “To Write My Life ”: Tolstoy Tries, and Fails, to Produce a Memoir or Autobiography The Author Biography—“My Life”: “On the Basis of My Own Memories”—“Reminiscences”: “More Useful Than All That Artistic Prattle with Which the Twelve Volumes of My Works Are Filled”—“Reminiscences”: “I Cannot Provide a Coherent Description of Events and States of Mind”—“The Green Stick”: “Où Suis-Je? Pourquoi Suis-Je? Que Suis-Je?”—Tolstoy and the Autobiographical Tradition Chapter 5. “What Should We Do Then?”: Tolstoy on Self and Other “Why Have You, a Man from a Different World, Stopped near Us? Who Are You?”—Master and Slave: Tolstoy Rewrites Hegel—Tolstoy and the Washerwoman—The Order of Things: The Church, the State, the Arts and Sciences—“Master and Man”—Coda: Nonparticipation in Evil Chapter 6. “I Felt a Completely New Liberation from Personality”: Tolstoy’s Late Diaries Tolstoy Resumes his Diary—The Temporal Order of Narrative: The Last Day—“On Life and Death ”—The Diary as a Spiritual Exercise—“I, the Body, Is Such a Disgusting Chamber Pot”—“I Am Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself. . . .”—“I Have Lost the Memory of Everything, Almost Everything. . . . How Can One Not Rejoice at the Loss of Memory?”—Sleeping, Dreaming, and Awakening—Tolstoy’s Dreams—Dreams: The World beyond Time and Representation—The Book of life: “It Is Written on Time”—The Circle of Reading: “To Replace the Consciousness of Leo Tolstoy with the Consciousness of All Humankind”—“The Death of Socrates”—Tolstoy’s Death Appendix: Russian Quotations Notes Index"

Reviews

I read 'Who, What Am I?' with the kind of engagement one usually experiences when reading a novel. It is intellectually brilliant, emotionally powerful, and at times moving. It is a remarkable book that offers the reader a rare combination of impeccable archival research and acutely observed literary criticism. How can one write the self? Irina Paperno shows that virtually Tolstoy's entire life was spent in a dazzling array of attempts to do so, even as he came increasingly to mistrust the very fact of writing and sought to embrace silence. --Robin Feuer Miller, Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities, Brandeis University, author of Dostoevsky's Unfinished Journey This is a relatively short book, yet it is rich in content, taking on some of the most important and challenging problems Tolstoy faced as a writer and thinker. [Irina Paperno] draws on a full range of Tolstoy's nonfiction writings from the 1850s until his death in 1910: diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, essays, and religious tracts. In addition, her book is informed by vast reading in other sources, primary and secondary. --Randall A. Poole The Russian Review Paperno deftly shows how Tolstoi's attempt to write an autobiography failed, but his perceived failure at capturing the moral, philosophical, and technical issues accurately becomes a testament to his literary honesty (102). Who, What Am I? is highly important for any Tolstoi researcher, as it brings together the whole of his writings dealing with the exploration of the self. --Radha Balasubramanian Slavic Review Offers a rare exploration into the internal world of Tolstoy by examining his nonfictional, first-person writings, including diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, and essays.... Paperno makes an invaluable contribution to Tolstoy scholarship. --R. A. Erb CHOICE

Offers a rare exploration into the internal world of Tolstoy by examining his nonfictional, first-person writings, including diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, and essays.... Paperno makes an invaluable contribution to Tolstoy scholarship. -- R. A. Erb * CHOICE * Paperno deftly shows how Tolstoi's attempt to write an autobiography failed, but his perceived failure at capturing the moral, philosophical, and technical issues accurately becomes a testament to his literary honesty (102). Who, What Am I? is highly important for any Tolstoi researcher, as it brings together the whole of his writings dealing with the exploration of the self. -- Radha Balasubramanian * Slavic Review * This is a relatively short book, yet it is rich in content, taking on some of the most important and challenging problems Tolstoy faced as a writer and thinker. [Irina Paperno] draws on a full range of Tolstoy's nonfiction writings from the 1850s until his death in 1910: diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, essays, and religious tracts. In addition, her book is informed by vast reading in other sources, primary and secondary. -- Randall A. Poole * The Russian Review * I read 'Who, What Am I?' with the kind of engagement one usually experiences when reading a novel. It is intellectually brilliant, emotionally powerful, and at times moving. It is a remarkable book that offers the reader a rare combination of impeccable archival research and acutely observed literary criticism. How can one write the self? Irina Paperno shows that virtually Tolstoy's entire life was spent in a dazzling array of attempts to do so, even as he came increasingly to mistrust the very fact of writing and sought to embrace silence. -- Robin Feuer Miller, Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities, Brandeis University, author of <I>Dostoevsky's Unfinished Journey</I>

I read 'Who, What Am I?' with the kind of engagement one usually experiences when reading a novel. It is intellectually brilliant, emotionally powerful, and at times moving. It is a remarkable book that offers the reader a rare combination of impeccable archival research and acutely observed literary criticism. How can one write the self? Irina Paperno shows that virtually Tolstoy's entire life was spent in a dazzling array of attempts to do so, even as he came increasingly to mistrust the very fact of writing and sought to embrace silence. -- Robin Feuer Miller, Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities, Brandeis University, author of <I>Dostoevsky's Unfinished Journey</I> This is a relatively short book, yet it is rich in content, taking on some of the most important and challenging problems Tolstoy faced as a writer and thinker. [Irina Paperno] draws on a full range of Tolstoy's nonfiction writings from the 1850s until his death in 1910: diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, essays, and religious tracts. In addition, her book is informed by vast reading in other sources, primary and secondary. -- Randall A. Poole * The Russian Review * Paperno deftly shows how Tolstoi's attempt to write an autobiography failed, but his perceived failure at capturing the moral, philosophical, and technical issues accurately becomes a testament to his literary honesty (102). Who, What Am I? is highly important for any Tolstoi researcher, as it brings together the whole of his writings dealing with the exploration of the self. -- Radha Balasubramanian * Slavic Review * Offers a rare exploration into the internal world of Tolstoy by examining his nonfictional, first-person writings, including diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, and essays.... Paperno makes an invaluable contribution to Tolstoy scholarship. -- R. A. Erb * CHOICE *

Paperno deftly shows how Tolstoi's attempt to write an autobiography failed, but his perceived failure at capturing the moral, philosophical, and technical issues accurately becomes a testament to his literary honesty (102). Who, What Am I? is highly important for any Tolstoi researcher, as it brings together the whole of his writings dealing with the exploration of the self. -- Radha Balasubramanian * Slavic Review * Paperno reads all his [Tolstoy's] writings in relation to the central project of his life: the transformation of his life into a book that would teach others how to live.... 'Who, What Am I?' is an important book that will become a standard source for students, general readers and scholars alike. * SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW * This is a relatively short book, yet it is rich in content, taking on some of the most important and challenging problems Tolstoy faced as a writer and thinker. [Irina Paperno] draws on a full range of Tolstoy's nonfiction writings from the 1850s until his death in 1910: diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, essays, and religious tracts. In addition, her book is informed by vast reading in other sources, primary and secondary. -- Randall A. Poole * The Russian Review * Offers a rare exploration into the internal world of Tolstoy by examining his nonfictional, first-person writings, including diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, and essays.... Paperno makes an invaluable contribution to Tolstoy scholarship. -- R. A. Erb * CHOICE *

Author Information

Irina Paperno teaches Russian literature and intellectual history at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Stories of the Soviet Experience: Memoirs, Diaries, Dreams and Suicide as a Cultural Institution in Dostoevsky's Russia.

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