The Ugly in Russian Literature: Dostoevsky's Influence on Iurii Mamleev, Liudmila Petrushevskaia, and Tatiana Tolstaia

Inna Tigountsova. The Ugly in Russian Literature: Dostoevsky' s Influence on Iurii Mamleev, Liudmila Petrushevskaia, and Tatiana Tolstaia. Saarbr�cken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010. 187 pp. Works cited. $97.00, cloth.

This monograph is both a study of Dostoevsky and of the writer's influence on three contemporary writers. The discussion begins with an informative and stimulating outline of the concept of ugliness in literary theory in Ancient Greek, Medieval, Romantic and Realist aesthetics. The typologies of the ugly that are dealt with include the formless, amorphous, asymmetrical, disharmonious, vulgar, monstrous and repulsive. The author then demonstrates Dostoevsky' s …