The Superstitious Muse

For several decades David Bethea has written authoritatively on the ""mythopoetic thinking"" that lies at the heart of classical Russian literature, especially Russian poetry. This collection contains a liberal sampling of Bethea's most memorable previously published essays along with new studies prepared for this occasion.

David Bethea (Ph.D. University of Kansas, 1977) is a Vilas Professor of Slavic Languages, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Research interests include: Pushkin and his era, modern Russian poetry (esp. Khodasevich and Brodsky), Russian religious thought and cultural mythology, Russian émigré literature, Anglo-American vs. Russian modernism, 20th century Russian/Slavic literary theory (esp. influence studies), biography. Among his books are: Joseph Brodsky and the Creation of Exile (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), and Realizing Metaphors: Alexander Pushkin and the Life of the Poet (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998).