The Author and the Hero in the Labyrinth of Ideas

The name of Andrei Astvatsaturov, a literary scholar and professor at St. Petersburg State University, is well known not only in the professional philological community: he is the author of books and articles on Anglo-American literature, including novels "People in... the Nude", "Skunksamera", "Autumn in Pockets", "Do Not Feed or Touch the Pelicans". In his new book, Andrei Astvatsaturov addresses the works of 20th-century classics as well as contemporary Russian writers.
The combination of serious issues and an engaging manner of presentation, for which Astvatsaturov is known as an outstanding lecturer, is also present in his literary studies. His virtuoso analysis allows us to see paradoxes, seemingly in the standard works of Anglo-American modernists - Henry Miller, Ernest Hemingway, Jerome David Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike. Contemporary Russian authors unexpectedly turn out to be their heirs: in the criminal narrative of Roman Senchin, the plot of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" emerges, while the chronicler of the Russian diaspora Andrei Ivanov appears as the Russian Henry Miller. The book is intended for a wide readership - both philologists and those who wish to better understand the works of world classics, get acquainted with the most prominent names of contemporary Russian literature, and feel the whimsical logic of the literary process.