Nijinsky's Feeling Mind

Nicole Svobodny is senior lecturer in global studies at Washington University in St. Louis and coeditor of Migration and Mobility in the Modern Age and Under the Sky of My Africa.

• AcknowledgmentsNote on Transliteration IntroductionPart I: From Stage to Page1. Trance Dance2. Walking and Talking3. Predator-PreyPart II: A Life in Books and Magazines4. Reading Nijinsky Reading5. Dancing the Tightrope Between World of Art and FeelingConclusionBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Svobodny offers the first in-depth English-language analysis of ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky’s original Russian writings. Her work is based on considerable archival research in libraries and collections in the US and Europe. The book is organized as a contrasting dialogue between Nijinsky’s experiences of and attempts to understand interior and exterior, private and public, physical and mental, and somatic and performative realities. Making strategic use of secondary sources, the author focuses on Nijinsky’s words and posits the influence of Russian literary masters such as Dostoevsky, Gogol, and Tolstoy on his writings. Svobodny investigates catalyzing events that prompted Nijinsky’s writings and argues that he wished readers to experience both his writing process and the result. This interdisciplinary approach will be of interest to dance scholars, historians, and literary theorists. The text is supported by carefully selected English translations of selections from Nijinsky’s diaries, as well as relevant excerpts from the writings of others. Extensive notes and a lengthy bibliography extend the book’s substance and usefulness. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.