The Twentieth Century Russian Short Story: A Critical Companion is a
collection of the most informative critical articles on some of the best
twentieth-century Russian short stories from Chekhov and Bunin to
Tolstaya and Pelevin. While each article focuses on a particular short
story, collectively they elucidate the developments in each author's
oeuvre and in the subjects, structure, and themes of the
twentieth-century Russian short story. American, European and Russian
scholars discuss the recurrent themes of language's power and limits, of
childhood and old age, of art and sexuality, and of cultural, individual
and artistic memory. The book opens with a discussion of the short story
genre and its socio-cultural function. This book will be of value to all
scholars of Russian literature, the short story, and genre theory.