Jacob's Ladder Kabbalistic Allegory in Russian Literature [Hardcover]

Focusing primarily on the close study of literary works presented in the broad cultural and historical context, Jacobs Ladder discusses the reflection of kabbalistic allegory in Russian literature and provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the perception of Kabbalah in Russian consciousness. Aptekman investigates the questions of when, how and why Kabbalah has been used in Russian literary texts from Pre-Romanticism to Modernism and what particular role it played in the larger context of the Russian literary tradition. The correct understanding of this liaison helps the reader to clarify many enigmatic images in Russian literary works of the last two centuries and to understand the roots of a particular cultural falsification that played an important role in the anti-Semitic mythology of the twentieth century.This book is a fascinating study of a largely unexplored subject--the role of Kabbalah in Russian literature from the mid 17th to the 20th century and the larger context in which literature developed. Focusing on images and allegories that derive, directly and indirectly, from Kabbalah, Aptekman shows how and why lt became an important element in mystical freemasonry, romanticism, and modernism. In addition, she limns the alternation between mystical and magical (or occult) interpretations of kabbalah and reveals how the occult interpretation came to be associated with black magic and, eventually, with the myth of a Judaeo-Masonic conspiracy.Marina Aptekman is an assistant professor of Russian Language and Literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She received her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Brown University in 2003. Her recent publications include articles Forward to the Past or Two Radical Views on Russian Nationalist Future: Pyotr Krasnovs Behind the Thistle and Vladimir Sorokins Day of Oprichnik (SEEJ), and Kabbalah, Judeo-Masonic Conspiracy and Post-Soviet Literary Discourse: from Political Tool to Virtual Reality.l£