The Absurd in Russian Literature. Historical Anecdote in the Texts of Writers

Yefim Kurganov - Doctor of Philosophy, philologist-slavist, researcher of the genre of literary historical anecdote. For the first time in Russian literature, he traced the genealogy of this unique genre, following its flourishing in the works of Pushkin, Gogol, Leskov,... Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Dovlatov, and Platonov. Sometimes the reader is even unaware that writers introduce well-known anecdotes from their era into their works, which often become the foundation of their texts. The anecdote thus becomes not just an artistic element but a main component of the narrative style of a particular author. Yefim Kurganov identifies the sources of anecdote borrowing, familiarizes readers with them, and shows how they transformed in "Eugene Onegin," "The House in Kolomna," "The Government Inspector," "The Chameleons," "The Adolescent," and many other classic texts.
This book resembles a detective investigation, an exciting quest through Russian literature, the answers to which are astonishing in their findings and ignite even greater interest in it.