All the Same The Words Don''t Go Away : Essays on Authors, Heroes, Aesthetics, and Stage Adaptations from the Russian Tradition

The creative potential is inherent in transposing classic literary texts into other genres or media (operatic, dramatic) and the responsibilities, if any, govern the transposer, audience, and critic. The practice of transposition gives rise to a creative conflict. This title features essays and reviews, linked by these themes.

All the Same the Words Don''t Go Away brings together twenty-five years of essays and reviews, linked loosely by three themes. The first explores the legacy of Mikhail Bakhtin: his ideas of dialogue and carnival, and the debates ignited by each. The second delves into three "master workers" of the Russian tradition: Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky. In this section, emphasis is comparative: the riddle of Pushkin''s life, why "Tolstoy versus Dostoevsky," how Chekhov reads Tolstoy, why Kundera dislikes Doestoevsky and Tolstoy dislikes Shakespeare. The final section addresses the transposition of classic literary texts into other media through musical works by Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev. Throughout, the fundamental heroes are Pushkin''s Tatiana Larina and Boris Godunov. This volume will be of interest to comparativists and students in interdisciplinary humanities.