A HISTORY OF EARLY RUSSIAN LITERATURE

This is very special, and only the really serious student of world literature, particularly Russian literature, is likely to read it. But for that market, the book is alone in its field. For the average student, Helen Muchnic's Introduction to Russian Literature (see report P. 184) would be more practical. The introduction to this volume indicates the problems facing the researcher into this field,- problems of chronology, enigmatic works, and so on. He has followed the traditional periodization. The earliest period- up to the 17th century- is dominated by the church, with the injection of the political aspect in the 16th century, and no acceptance of the role of entertainment until the 17th century. No poetry, drama, adventure; a quaint mixture of fact and fancy; a certain graphic quality that analyzes for the student the mood of the era. While written under the surveillance of the Soviet authorities, this is comparatively unmarred by injection of Soviet propaganda...A project of the Russian translation project of the American Council of Learned Societies.