Border Crossing

‘By closely analysing the complex and multiple ways that classic works of Russian literature have been reimagined at different times and places, in different languages, cultures, genres and media, the essays in Burry and White’s Border Crossing make a significant contribution not just to Russian Studies but to adaptation studies as well. Focusing on adaptation as “cross-cultural communication”, Border Crossing opens up numerous exciting new avenues for future research by scholars of both literature and film.‘ Tony Anemone, The New School, New York Each time a border is crossed there are cultural, political and social issues to be considered. Applying the metaphor of the ‘border crossing’ from one temporal or spatial territory into another, this book examines the way classic Russian texts have been altered to suit new cinematic environments. In these essays, international scholars examine how political and economic circumstances – from a shifting Soviet political landscape to the perceived demands of American and European markets – have played a crucial role in dictating how filmmakers transpose their cinematic hypertext into a new environment. Rather than focus on the degree of accuracy or fidelity with which these films address their originating texts, this innovative collection explores the role of ideological, political and other cultural pressures that can affect the transformation of literary narratives into cinematic offerings. Alexander Burry is Associate Professor Associate Professor of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at The Ohio State University. He is the author of Multi-Mediated Dostoevsky: Transposing Novels into Opera, Film, and Drama (2011). Frederick H. White is Professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Utah Valley University. He has published two books on the Russian writer Leonid Andreev. He has also co-edited a selection of essays on the Russian avant-garde and is the co-author of Marketing Literature and Posthumous Legacies: The Symbolic Capital of Leonid Andreev and Vladimir Nabokov (2013).