Novel Epics: Gogol, Dostoevsky, and National Narrative

Novel Epics reassesses the origins of the nineteenth-century Russian novel, challenging the LukÁcs-Bakhtin theory of epic. Frederick T. Griffiths and Stanley J. Rabinowitz take the Russian novel out of a specifically European context and show that it developed as a means of reconnecting that narrative form with its origins in classical and Christian epic in a way that expressed the Russian desire to renew and restore ancient spirituality. Through readings of Gogol's Dead Souls and Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, this book redefines "epic" and points to a new understanding of the sweep of Russian literature as a whole.

"This work subjects the LukÁcs-Bakhtin view of epic . . . to an erudite and lively critique. . . . It leads to a radical new understanding of the achievement of Gogol and his place in Russian literature, and of what the authors call 'monumental' literature. The writing is . . . brilliant and provocative." --Donald Fanger, Harvard University