| Taboo Pushkin Since his death in 1837, Alexander Pushkin--often called the "father of Russian literature"--has become a timeless embodiment of Russian national identity, adopted for diverse ideological purposes and reinvented anew as a cultural icon in each historical era (tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet). His elevation to mythic status, however, has led to the celebration of some of his writings and the shunning of others. Throughout the history of Pushkin studies, certain topics, texts, and interpretations have remained officially off-limits in Russia--taboos as prevalent in today's Russia as ever before. Alyssa Dinega Gillespie is associate professor of Russian at the University of Notre Dame. She is author of A Russian Psyche: The Poetic Mind of Marina Tsvetaeva , also published by the University of Wisconsin Press, and editor of Russian Literature in the Age of Realism . |