In this first book-length study of Tolstoy’s meditation on death, life, love, and happiness, Inessa Medzhibovskaya focuses on unknown documents and stories that illuminate... Read More
Stephanie Leone, Literary Studies Alum, wrote an exciting feature about our course Reading for Writers: the Contemporary Short Story that we wanted to share with... Read More
Ann Snitow May 9, 1943-August 10, 2019 Ann Snitow, a founding faculty member of Lang College and the creator of the Gender Studies Program at... Read More
Assistant professor of literary studies Jennifer Firestone published Gates and Fields earlier this year. Read a compelling interview with her about it here.
Faculty member David Gerrard has published The Epiphany Machine, a book that has been called “hilarious” and “razor-sharp” by The Washington Post, a “wildly charming, morally... Read More
Literary Studies Faculty member Rachel Aydt has published an essay called The Pilgrims in The White Review. Read her beautiful essay here.
Assistant Professor Jennifer Firestone’s new publication is out! In Gates & Fields, Jennifer Firestone conjures Emily Dickinson to serve as the Virgil of this brave... Read More
When Robin Mookerjee died last year, in May 2016, he left behind a considerable amount of unpublished writing, including poems and short stories. Lucy... Read More
October 10, 2019
Ann Snitow May 9, 1943-August 10, 2019 Ann Snitow, a founding faculty member of Lang College and the creator of the Gender Studies Program at the New School, passed away on August 10, 2019. She was a beloved member of the Literary Studies faculty. While indeed her books and essays are crucial texts in feminist studies and in the life of the mind, as Literary Studies colleagues our remembrances here are more personal, testaments not just to her work but to the power of her being.
In this first book-length study of Tolstoy’s meditation on death, life, love, and happiness, Inessa Medzhibovskaya focuses on unknown documents and stories that illuminate the realities of Russian philosophical culture at the end of the long nineteenth century. Special attention is paid to Tolstoy’s involvement with the Moscow Psychological Society and its periodicals, to his friendship with its longtime Chairman Nikolai Grot, and to Tolstoy’s interactions with such outstanding figures of Russian thought as Nikolai Strakhov, Nikolai Fedorov, Lev Lopatin, and Vladimir Soloviev. What was Tolstoy’s relationship to Grot—the relation of a genius to a scribe, or a mentor to a disciple? What did it mean to be elected a distinguished member of the Moscow Psychological Society? Who were the other members? What was the nature of the critical exchanges around On Life between Tolstoy, his family and friends, and other Russian thinkers, scientists, and artists? Bookending the volume is an extensive historical appendix. Here the reader will find documents published in English for the first time.
Inessa Medzhibovskaya teaches in the Departments of Liberal Studies here at Eugene Lang College. Her previous books include Tolstoy and the Religious Culture of His Time; Tolstoy, On Life: A Critical Edition; Tolstoy and His Problems: View from the Twenty-First Century; and A Critical Guide to Tolstoy’s On Life.
The “Tolstoy’s ON LIFE” book launch party will take place on October 30th. For details, check the Upcoming Events section.
For more information about the book, go to: https://www.tolstoy-studies-journal.com/
