The Poetry of Prose: Readings in Russian Literature

Abstract

In prose, and especially in narrative prose, the poetic system of repetitive parallel elements is less conspicuous than in verse composition. And yet the poetry of narrative prose is likewise brought about by elaborate systems of parallels and equivalences that prompt the reader to transform the true-to-life representation of events and characters into higher, symbolic levels of meaning. The readings in this book explore the functions of parallelistic patterning in narrative Russian literature: from the figural interpretation of early East Slavic hagiography — the juxtaposition of saints’ lives with the gospel narratives about the life of Christ — to the deployment of related forms of parabolic projection in the works the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists. It is the uncovering of such patterns that provides access to the symbolic dimension of the Russian novel.