Odoevsky's Four Pathways into Modern Fiction - 9780719082092

This book takes four stories by the Russian Romantic author Vladimir Odoevsky to illustrate 'pathways', developed further by subsequent writers, into modern fiction. Featured here are: the artistic (musical story), the rise of science fiction, psychic aspects of the detective story, and of confession in the novel (also involving monks and the duel).

As well as highlighting the Odoevsky stories as stepping-stones into the four trends, or subgenres, featured, the four chapters go on to examine the development of these categories by a wide range of subsequent writers in fiction ranging from the Romantic period up to the present century. Two newly translated Odoevsky stories form an 'Appendix'.

The approach taken in this study is to work backwards from Odoevsky's stories, noting respective previous examples or traditions, before proceeding to follow the 'pathways' observed into later Russian, English and comparative fiction. Dostoevsky plays a key role in two of the four cases, but other writers discussed include Hoffmann, Poe, Manzoni, Pasternak, Hodgson and Stapledon, with appearances by such contemporary figures as Matthew Pearl and Julian Barnes.

Whilst appealing to specialists in Russian and comparative literature, these chapters are accessible to a student readership taking courses involving the main areas featured - including the arts in literature, fictional artistic biography (primarily here J.S. Bach), interplanetary flight and civilisations, detective fiction and novelistic confession.