Slavica Publishers

The Book of Royal Degrees and the genesis of Russian historical consciousness.

Produced during the reign of Ivan IV (1533-84), the Book of Degrees of the Royal Genealogy was the first narrative history of Russia, according to the foreword of this volume, which presents 21 papers from an interdisciplinary conference convened at the U. of California at Los Angeles in order to discuss the book's representation in Kievan and Muscovite history, the politics of its creation, its literary status, its ideological uses, and the role of historical narratives in legitimizing and influencing the present, among other topics. Five of the contributions are presented in Russian and the rest are in English. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The many facets of Mikhail Kuzmin; a miscellany.

This volume collects critical essays and other materials on the contributions of Mikhail Kuzmin (1872-1936) to the development of Russian modernism through poetry, drama, prose, and music. Five of the 11 essays included are in Russian, while the remaining four are in English. Topics addressed by the English contributions include themes and structures in the poem "Sweet Is It To Die…", Kuzmin's Wings and the Russian tradition of homoerotic writing, structural concerns in the Alexandrian Songs (songs for piano and voice), and the friendship between Kuzmin and painter Konstantin Andreevich Somov (1869-1939). Other materials presented include Kuzmin's short story "Lecture by Dostoevsky" in the original Russian and in English translation, reproductions of portraits of Kuzmin by Somov, and a facsimile reprint of the musical notation of Kuzmin's Kuranty liubvi. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)