Reading Backwards

This book outlines with theoretical and literary historical rigor a highly innovative approach to the writing of Russian literary history and to the reading of canonical Russian texts. "Anticipatory plagiarism” is a concept developed by the French Oulipo group, but it has never to my knowledge been explored with reference to Russian studies. The editors and contributors to the proposed volume – a blend of senior and beginning scholars, Russians and non-Russians – offer a set of essays on Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy which provocatively test the utility of AP as a critical tool, relating these canonical authors to more recent instances, some of them decidedly non-canonical. The senior scholars who are the editors and most of the contributors are truly distinguished. The volume is likely to receive serious attention and to be widely read. I recommend it with unqualified enthusiasm.

[...] admirably clear, jargon-free and balanced introduction [...] everyone should read the introduction to this book [...] a scrupulously edited volume [...] As a retired academic who gave many lectures on Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and sometimes struggled to find anything new to say, I wish I had had this book to hand.