"The great Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) is widely recognized as one of the most consequential human beings of the twentieth century. Through his writings and moral witness, he illumined the nature of totalitarianism and helped bring down an 'evil empire.' His cour...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben

1. Verfasser:	Mahoney, Daniel J. (VerfasserIn)
Format:	Buch
Sprache:	English
Veröffentlicht:	South Bend, Ind. St. Augustine's Press 2014
Schlagworte:	Solzhenit͡syn, Aleksandr Isaevich / 1918-2008 / Criticism and interpretation Solzhenit͡syn, Aleksandr Isaevich / 1918-2008 / Political and social views Solženicyn, Aleksandr Isaevič > 1918-2008 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political Biografie
Zusammenfassung:	"The great Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) is widely recognized as one of the most consequential human beings of the twentieth century. Through his writings and moral witness, he illumined the nature of totalitarianism and helped bring down an 'evil empire.' His courage and tenacity are acknowledged even by his fiercest critics. Yet the world-class novelist, historian, and philosopher has largely been eclipsed by a caricature that has transformed a measured and self-critical patriot into a ferocious nationalist, a partisan of local self-government into a quasi-authoritarian, a man of faith and reason into a narrow-minded defender of Orthodoxy. The caricature gets in the way of a thoughtful and humane confrontation with the "other" Solzhenitsyn, the true Solzhenitsyn, who is a writer and thinker of the first rank and whose spirited defense of liberty is never divorced from moderation. It is to this recovery that this book is dedicated. This book above all explores philosophical, political, and moral themes in Solzhenitsyn's two masterworks, The Gulag Archipelago and The Red Wheel, as well as in his great European novel In the First Circle. We see Solzhenitsyn as analyst of revolution, defender of the moral law, phenomenologist of ideological despotism, and advocate of "resisting evil with force." Other chapters carefully explore Solzhenitsyn's conception of patriotism, his dissection of ideological mendacity, and his controversial, but thoughtful and humane discussion of the "Jewish Question" in the Russian - and Soviet twentieth century. A final Appendix reproduces the beautiful Introduction that the author's widow, Natalia Solzhenitsyn, wrote to the 2009 Russian abridgment of The Gulag Archipelago, a work that is now taught in Russian high schools"--
Beschreibung:	Includes bibliographical references and index Foreword -- Chapter 1. An Anguished' Love of Country: Solzhenitsyn's Paradoxical Middle Path: The Ideological Deformation of Reality; Recovering Truth and Memory; A False Consensus; A "Lucid" Love of Country; An Exacting Patriotism; A War on Two Fronts; A New Mission; Self-Inflicted Wounds; The Pathologies of the Russian Right; Orthodox Universalism: The Other Extreme; The Question of Tone; A Theorist of Self-Government ;Beyond Tired Polemics -- Chapter 2. "The Active Struggle Against Evil": Reflections on a Theme in Solzhenitsyn: Vorotyntsev and Stolypin; A Pusillanimous Monarch; Moral Freedom and Political Liberty; The Soul of Man Under Socialism; The Camp Revolts; Resisting Evil With Force -- Chapter 3. Nicholas II and the Coming of Revolution: Conclusion -- Chapter 4. The Artist as Thinker: Reflections In the First Circle: The Three Pillars; The Two Versions; "But We Are Only Given One Conscience, Too"; A Crucial Encounter; The Decisive Metanoia; Beyond Fanaticism and Skepticism; The Remarkable Continuities of Sotzhenitsyn's Reflection -- Chapter 5. A Phenomenology of Ideological Despotism: Reflections on Solzhenitsyn's "Our Muzzled Freedom": An Introduction: Theorizing Totalitarianism; The Soul and Barbed Wire; "Free Life" in a Totalitarian Regime; Constant Fear; Secrecy and Mistrust Complicity in the Web of Repression; Betrayal as a Form of Existence; Corruption versus Nobility; The Lie as a Form of Existence; Class Cruelty; Slave Psychology ;Conclusion: Remembering Everything -- Chapter 6. Two Critics of the Ideological "Lie": Raymond Aron's Encounter with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Letter to the Soviet Leaders; A Parisian Encounter; Solzhenitsyn and Sartre; Misconceptions About Russia; Two Spiritual Families? -- Chapter 7. Solzhenitsyn, Russia, and the Jews Revisited: From Belligerence to Understanding; Rejecting the Temptation to Blame; Renegades and Revolutionaries; The Fortunes of Soviet Jewry; Repentance and Responsibility; Solzhenitsyn's Moral Challenge; The Holocaust; Solzhenitsyn's Non Possum -- Chapter 8. The Binary Tales: The Soul of Man in the Soviet -and Russian-Twentieth Century -- Chapter 9. Freedom, Faith and the Moral Foundations of Self-Government: Solzhenitsyn's Final Word to Russia and the West: A Life Rooted in Conscience; A State Prize; The Prospects for Repentance; An Archival Revolution; Two Revolutions; Two Hundred Years Together; Learning About the Past; Three Leaders; Building Democracy From the Bottom Up; A Meaningful Opposition; Parties and Popular Representation; Making Room for Small Businesses; A "National Idea"?; Russia and the West; The Future of Russian Literature; The Church in Russia Today; A Man of Faith and Reason; Three Prayers; An Encounter With the Polish Pope; Orthodoxy and the Neo-Pagan Temptation; A Calm and Balanced Attitude Toward Death -- Appendix 1. "Really Existing Socialism" and the Archival Revolution: Wooden Words; Red Holocaust; Black Book; Gulag Memoirs; Testaments to Violence and Lies; History and the Totalitarian Temptation -- Appendix 2. The Gift of Incarnation: Introduction:by Daniel J. Mahoney; The Gift of Incarnation by Natalia Solzhenitsyn
Beschreibung:	XIII, 242 S. 24 cm