Reawakening National Identity: Dostoevskii’s Diary of a Writer and Its Impact on Russian Society

Vassena is an independent scholar specializing in Russian literature; she has taught at the university level in Italy and published articles on 19th-century Russian literature. Drawing on new material--correspondence between Dostoevskii and his readers--and applying a new methodology, reader-response criticism and genre studies, she offers an analysis of how Dostoevskii's rhetoric in the Diary of a Writer affected the Russian reading public, transformed Dostoevskii's image in Russian society, and reawakened national identity. No subject index. Annotation 穢2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)