The woman in the window: commerce, consensual fantasy, and the quest for masculine virtue in the Russian novel

Synopsis

In The Woman In The Window: Commerce, Consensual Fantasy, And The Quest For Masculine Virtue In The Russian Novel, Russell Scott Valentino Offers Pioneering New Insights Into The Historical Construction Of Virtue And Its Relation To The Rapidly Shifting Economic Context In Modern Russia. This Study Illustrates How The Traditional Virtue Ethic, Grounded In Property-based Conceptions Of Masculine Heroism, Was Eventually Displaced By A New Commercial Ethic That Rested Upon Consensual Fantasy. The New Economic World Destabilized Traditional Russian Notions Of Virtue And Posed A Central Question That Russian Authors Have Struggled To Answer Since The Early Nineteenth Century: How Could A Self-interested Commercial Man Be Incorporated Into The Russian Context As A Socially Valuable Masculine Character. -- From Back Cover. Introduction: In Search Of (russian) Virtue -- Three Modern Characters : The Double, The Con Man, And The Woman In The Window -- The Commercial Ethic In Gogol's Dead Souls -- In Search Of The Virtuous Man : Minor Readings -- Lara, Lolita, And Other Things That Start With L -- Conclusion: Delillo's Cosmopolis And The End Of An Idiom. Russell Scott Valentino. Includes Bibliographical References, Filmography (pages 149-159) And Index.