All the Same the Words Don't Go Away brings together twenty-five years
of essays and reviews, linked loosely by three themes. The first
explores the legacy of Mikhail Bakhtin: his ideas of dialogue and
carnival, and the debates ignited by each. The second delves into three
"master workers" of the Russian tradition: Pushkin, Tolstoy, and
Dostoevsky. In this section, emphasis is comparative: the riddle of
Pushkin's life, why "Tolstoy versus Dostoevsky," how Chekhov reads
Tolstoy, why Kundera dislikes Doestoevsky and Tolstoy dislikes
Shakespeare. The final section addresses the transposition of classic
literary texts into other media through musical works by Musorgsky,
Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev. Throughout, the fundamental
heroes are Pushkin's Tatiana Larina and Boris Godunov. This volume will
be of interest to comparativists and students in interdisciplinary
humanities.