Wingless Desire in Modernist Russia

Dr. Yelena Zotova is associate teaching professor at The Pennsylvania State University.

• Table of ContentsA Note on Translation and TransliterationAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: The Hermeneutic Challenge of EnvyChapter 1: When Author Envies HeroChapter 2: Wingless Desire: Mozart and Salieri as Author and HeroChapter 3: A Purgatory for the Hero: Iurii Olesha’s EnvyChapter 4: The Author in Hades: Konstantin VaginovChapter 5: The Surplus of Vision in the Works of Alexander GrinAfterword: Envy, Conscience, and TasteBibliographyAbout the Author

Wingless Desire is a trove of fresh insights for Bakhtin enthusiasts and adepts of Russian Modernism. A book for specialists, in order to appreciate the full scope of Zotova’s argument, it is helpful for the reader to have some familiarity with Bakhtin to begin with. That said, Zotova’s arguments are lucid, at times even striking, and parts of the analysis virtually crackle with brilliance. Zotova’s monograph is an accomplishment to envy.