Includes bibliographical references and index.

Most critics overlook the literary significance of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's work, focusing instead on biographical, political, and moral interpretations. This examination of Solzhenitsyn's major novels -- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, The First Circle, Cancer Ward, and August 1914 -- emphasizes that his writings must be understood within the tradition of Russian literature and the context of Western culture. James M. Curtis provides a detailed analysis of Tolstoy's crucial influence on Solzhenitsyn, and he discusses at length Solzhenitsyn's relationship to Dostoyevsky, Leskov, Chekhov, and Zamyatin. Curtis also demonstrates that a study of Ernest Hemingway (whose books have been enormously popular in Russia) and Virginia Woolf can contribute to our understanding of the Russian novelist. Solzhenitsyn's Traditional Imagination includes a chapter on Dos Passos and Eisenstein whose work constituted Solzhenitsyn's first major artistic interest outside Russian literature. The chapter presents the first comprehensive examination of the importance of film for Solzhenitsyn and shows how he learned the use of film technique in literature from Dos Passos and how he adapted it from Eisenstein's films.

Also issued online.

Southeastern Library Association Southern Books Competition, Dust Jacket Award, 1985

SACFinal081324