Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-284) and index.
Critical models, committed readers, and three Russian ideas -- Heroes and their plots -- Traditional narratives -- Western eyes on Russian realities : the eighteenth century -- The astonishing nineteenth century : romanticisms -- Realisms : Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov -- Symbolist and modernist world-building : three cities, three novels, and the devil -- The Stalin years : socialist realism, anti-fascist fairy tales, wilderness -- Coming to terms and seeking new terms : from the first Thaw (1956) to the end of the millennium.