A pathbreaking “gastrocritical” approach to the poetics of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and their contemporaries
This remarkable work by Ronald D. LeBlanc is the first study to appraise the representation of food and sexuality in the nineteenth-century Russian novel. Meticulously researched and elegantly and accessibly written, Slavic Sins of the Flesh sheds new light on classic literary creations as it examines how authors Nikolay Gogol, Ivan Goncharov, Grigorii Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Lev Tolstoy used eating in their works as a trope for male sexual desire. The treatment of carnal desire in these renowned works of fiction stimulated a generation of young writers to challenge Russian culture’s anti-eroticism, supreme spirituality, and utter disregard for the life of the body, so firmly rooted in centuries of ideological domination by the Orthodox Church.
Endorsements:
“Slavic Sins of the Flesh offers a magisterial new reading of the Russian classics. It not only illuminates the great works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy but also tackles larger, underlying questions of Russian culture. By analyzing representations of power and pleasure in texts both familiar and obscure, LeBlanc explores the ideals that shaped Russian society. This book is a triumph of scholarship and innovation.”—Darra Goldstein, Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Russian, Williams College, and Editor in Chief of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture
“Ronald LeBlanc has written a marvelous study of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy from the perspective of ‘gastro-criticism.’ His comparison of the alimentary and psycho-sexual dynamics in their works leads to an intriguing analysis of their influences on early twentieth-century Russian and Soviet literature. A book to be both tasted and devoured by all readers interested in the Russian novel and early Soviet fiction.”—Eric Naiman, Departments of Slavic and Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley
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RONALD D. LEBLANC is Professor of Russian and Humanities at the University of New Hampshire and Research Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. He is the author of The Russianization of Gil Blas: A Study in Literary Appropriation and many scholarly book chapters, articles, and book reviews.
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