How Russia Learned to Write

How Russia Learned to Write

Author: Irina Reyfman

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres

Published: 2016-08-23

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 0299308308

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How the status of Russian writers as members of the nobility, and their careers in service to the imperial state, shaped the course of Russian literature from Sumarokov and Derzhavin through Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoevsky.


The Everything Learning Russian Book with CD

The Everything Learning Russian Book with CD

Author: Julia Stakhnevich

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1598693875

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Whether you're planning a trip to Russia or adding a second language to your resume, this book will help you to: recognize and read Cyrillic letters; pronounce Russian words like a native; ask for directions, order dinner, and conduct business; and hold your own in a conversation. Includes step-by-step lessons in vocabulary, grammar, and conversation.


The Way of the Linguist

The Way of the Linguist

Author: Steve Kaufmann

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2005-11

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 1420873296

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The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey. It is now a cliché that the world is a smaller place. We think nothing of jumping on a plane to travel to another country or continent. The most exotic locations are now destinations for mass tourism. Small business people are dealing across frontiers and language barriers like never before. The Internet brings different languages and cultures to our finger-tips. English, the hybrid language of an island at the western extremity of Europe seems to have an unrivalled position as an international medium of communication. But historically periods of cultural and economic domination have never lasted forever. Do we not lose something by relying on the wide spread use of English rather than discovering other languages and cultures? As citizens of this shrunken world, would we not be better off if we were able to speak a few languages other than our own? The answer is obviously yes. Certainly Steve Kaufmann thinks so, and in his busy life as a diplomat and businessman he managed to learn to speak nine languages fluently and observe first hand some of the dominant cultures of Europe and Asia. Why do not more people do the same? In his book The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey, Steve offers some answers. Steve feels anyone can learn a language if they want to. He points out some of the obstacles that hold people back. Drawing on his adventures in Europe and Asia, as a student and businessman, he describes the rewards that come from knowing languages. He relates his evolution as a language learner, abroad and back in his native Canada and explains the kind of attitude that will enable others to achieve second language fluency. Many people have taken on the challenge of language learning but have been frustrated by their lack of success. This book offers detailed advice on the kind of study practices that will achieve language breakthroughs. Steve has developed a language learning system available online at: www.thelinguist.com.


Russian Thinkers

Russian Thinkers

Author: Isaiah Berlin

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2013-03-07

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0141393173

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Few, if any, English-language critics have written as perceptively as Isaiah Berlin about Russian thought and culture. Russian Thinkers is his unique meditation on the impact that Russia's outstanding writers and philosophers had on its culture. In addition to Tolstoy's philosophy of history, which he addresses in his most famous essay, 'The Hedgehog and the Fox,' Berlin considers the social and political circumstances that produced such men as Herzen, Bakunin, Turgenev, Belinsky, and others of the Russian intelligentsia, who made up, as Berlin describes, 'the largest single Russian contribution to social change in the world.'


The Everything Learning Russian Book Enhanced Edition

The Everything Learning Russian Book Enhanced Edition

Author: Julia Stakhnevich

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 1440528748

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Learning Russian is an exciting challenge-even saying "hello" "goodbye" seems daunting! Whether you're planning a trip to Russia or adding a valuable second language to your resume, this book is just what you need. Julia Stakhnevich, a native Russian speaker, will help you to: Recognize and read Cyrillic letters Pronounce Russian words like a native Ask for directions, order dinner, and conduct business Hold your own in a conversation Also, this eBook is enhanced with audio icons throughout which allow you to hear correct pronunciation or participate in various exercises so you can perfect your Russian pronunciation and understanding with ease! Inside, you'll also find step-by-step lessons in vocabulary, grammar, and conversation. With The Everything Learning Russian Book (Enhanced Edition), you'll see how much fun learning Russian can be!


The New Penguin Russian Course

The New Penguin Russian Course

Author: Nicholas J. Brown

Publisher: Circassian

Published: 1996-12

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 9780140120417

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This updated version of the Penguin Russian Course introduces the learner, through translation extracts, to the culture and life of the modern (post Glasnost) Soviet Union that was, as well as to the Russian language.


A History of Russian Literature

A History of Russian Literature

Author: Andrew Kahn

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-04-13

Total Pages: 1202

ISBN-13: 0192549537

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Russia possesses one of the richest and most admired literatures of Europe, reaching back to the eleventh century. A History of Russian Literature provides a comprehensive account of Russian writing from its earliest origins in the monastic works of Kiev up to the present day, still rife with the creative experiments of post-Soviet literary life. The volume proceeds chronologically in five parts, extending from Kievan Rus' in the 11th century to the present day. The coverage strikes a balance between extensive overview and in-depth thematic focus. Parts are organized thematically in chapters, which a number of keywords that are important literary concepts that can serve as connecting motifs and 'case studies', in-depth discussions of writers, institutions, and texts that take the reader up close and personal. Visual material also underscores the interrelation of the word and image at a number of points, particularly significant in the medieval period and twentieth century. The History addresses major continuities and discontinuities in the history of Russian literature across all periods, and in particular brings out trans-historical features that contribute to the notion of a national literature. The volume's time range has the merit of identifying from the early modern period a vital set of national stereotypes and popular folklore about boundaries, space, Holy Russia, and the charismatic king that offers culturally relevant material to later writers. This volume delivers a fresh view on a series of key questions about Russia's literary history, by providing new mappings of literary history and a narrative that pursues key concepts (rather more than individual authorial careers). This holistic narrative underscores the ways in which context and text are densely woven in Russian literature, and demonstrates that the most exciting way to understand the canon and the development of tradition is through a discussion of the interrelation of major and minor figures, historical events and literary politics, literary theory and literary innovation.


A Book Without Photographs

A Book Without Photographs

Author: Sergei Shargunov

Publisher: Glagoslav Publications

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 125

ISBN-13: 178267053X

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Sergei Shargunov’s A Book Without Photographs follows the young journalist and activist through selected snapshots from different periods of his remarkable life. Through memories both sharp and vague, we see scenes from Shargunov’s Soviet childhood, his upbringing in the family of a priest; his experience of growing up during the fall of empire and studying journalism at Moscow State University; his trip to war-torn Chechnya and Kyrgyzstan during the revolution; his first steps towards a fledgling political career. The book reflects the vast social and cultural transformations that colour Russia's recent history and mirrors the experience of an entire generation of Russians whose lives and feelings are inextricably intertwined with the fate of their homeland. Shortlisted for the National Bestseller Prize and a contender for The Big Book Award, A Book Without Photographs showcases the talents of one of the country’s brightest lights; a key player in a generation at the forefront of change in contemporary Russia.


How Russia Learned to Talk

How Russia Learned to Talk

Author: Stephen Lovell

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-02-27

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 019257499X

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Russia in the late nineteenth century may have been an autocracy, but it was far from silent. In the 1860s, new venues for public speech sprang up: local and municipal assemblies, the courtroom, and universities and learned societies. Theatre became more lively and vernacular, while the Orthodox Church exhorted its priests to become better preachers. Although the tsarist government attempted to restrain Russia's emerging orators, the empire was entering an era of vigorous modern politics. All the while, the spoken word was amplified by the written: the new institutions of the 1860s brought with them the adoption of stenography. Russian political culture reached a new peak of intensity with the 1905 revolution and the creation of a parliament, the State Duma, whose debates were printed in the major newspapers. Sometimes considered a failure as a legislative body, the Duma was a formidable school of modern political rhetoric. It was followed by the cacophonous freedom of 1917, when Aleksandr Kerensky, dubbed Russia's 'persuader-in-chief', emerged as Russia's leading orator only to see his charisma wane. The Bolsheviks could boast charismatic orators of their own, but after the October Revolution they also turned public speaking into a core ritual of Soviet 'democracy'. The Party's own gatherings remained vigorous (if also sometimes vicious) throughout the 1920s; and here again, the stenographer was in attendance to disseminate proceedings to a public of newspaper readers or Party functionaries. How Russia Learned to Talk offers an entirely new perspective on Russian political culture, showing that the era from Alexander II's Great Reforms to early Stalinism can usefully be seen as a single 'stenographic age'. All Russia's rulers, whether tsars or Bolsheviks, were grappling with the challenges and opportunities of mass politics and modern communications. In the process, they gave a new lease of life to the age-old rhetorical technique of oratory.


A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

Author: George Saunders

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2021-01-12

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1984856049

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves—and our world today. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Town & Country, The Rumpus, Electric Lit, Thrillist, BookPage • “[A] worship song to writers and readers.”—Oprah Daily For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.