Shapes of Apocalypse Arts and Philosophy in Slavic Thought [Hardcover]

This collective volume aims to highlight the philosophical and literary idea of apocalypse within key examples in the Slavic world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From Russian realism to avant-garde painting, from the classic fiction of the nineteenth century to twentieth-century philosophy, not omitting theatre, cinema or music, the concepts of end of history and end of present time are specifically examined as conditions for a redemptive image of the world. To understand this idea is to understand an essential part of Slavic culture, which, however divergent and variegated it may be, converges on this specific myth in a surprising manner.William J. Leatherbarrows essay (previously published in 1982) on apocalyptic imagery in Dostoevskiis The Idiot and The Devils is an outstanding model of concise, elegant and lucid analysis. Although the author modestly refers to it as a working paper (p. 132) and draws only tentative conclusions, he succeeds in integrating his evidence into a focused and persuasive argument on Dostoevskiis use of apocalyptic motifs to highlight the moral failure of utopianism and the dream of the Golden Age....[R]eaders will undoubtedly find unusual materials, novel approaches and stimulating ideas in this volume, which is attractively produced and pleasant to handle.For anyone concerned with or interested in the topic of the apocalypse in arts, literature and philosophy in Slavic culture this book would be invaluable and it is likely to become a primary reference source for future research in the study of religious concepts in general, and the apocalypse in particular.The volume should be of interest to specialists of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russian literature and the arts, the Eastern Orthodox Church, or Slavic spirituality in general. While there is great variation among the authors of the ten essays, they all address their genres from a religious or spiritual point of view. As a result, the reader ls