Febris erotica
Subtitle: lovesickness in the Russian literary imagination
By: Valeria Sobol.
Series: Literary conjugations
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Seattle
Language: eng
Number of pages: 300
ISBN-13: 9780295988955; 9780295988962
Subjects: Russian literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Lovesickness in literature; Love in literature
Description: "The destructive power of obsessive love was a defining subject of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Russian literature. In Febris Erotica, Sobol argues that Russian writers were deeply preoccupied with the nature of romantic relationships and were persistent in their use of lovesickness not simply as a traditional theme but as a way to address pressing philosophical, ethical, and ideological concerns through a recognizable literary trope. Sobol examines stereotypes about the damaging effects of romantic love and offers a short history of the topos of lovesickness in Western literature and medicine." -- Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The anatomy of feeling and the mind-body problem in Russian sentimentalism; title: Diagnosing love : tradition; title: Febris erotica in Herzen's Who is to blame?; title: An ordinary story : Goncharov's romantic patients; title: The Question of the soul in the age of Positivism; title: What is to be done about a lovesick woman? Chernyshevsky's treatment; title: From lovesickness to shamesickness : Tolstoy's solution.