Reflecting on Anna Karenina

Book Details:

• Author: Mary Evans

• Publisher: Routledge

• Binding: Paperback

• Number of Pages: 110

• Release Date: 18-10-2016

• EAN: 9781138803398

• Package Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches

• Languages: English

About The Book:

In Reflecting on Anna Karenina, Mary Evans presents a compelling feminist analysis of Leo Tolstoy's morally complex protagonist, Anna Karenina. Widely regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written, Tolstoy’s work explores themes of love, morality, and the constraints of society, with Anna’s tragic fate as its emotional and moral center.

Evans offers a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on Anna’s life and choices, situating her within Tolstoy’s own struggles with the feminine. The study delves into the contradictions and tensions that shape Anna’s character, representing the fantasies, desires, and fears that Tolstoy himself grappled with. She argues that Anna embodies all those qualities of womanhood that both fascinated and disturbed Tolstoy—qualities that he sought to punish in his narrative.

Throughout the book, Evans examines the way in which Anna’s life, bound by societal expectations and her own emotional turmoil, leads to her inevitable death. She contrasts this tragic resolution with the real-world potential for women to assert their own moral and sexual autonomy, proposing that this conflict can be overcome in life by a conscious act of self-assertion, rather than resignation to fate.

Key Features:

• Feminist reading of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.

• Focuses on Anna as the embodiment of feminine traits that Tolstoy both admired and condemned.

• Explores the complex relationship between Tolstoy and his female characters.

• Analyzes the contradiction between Tolstoy’s portrayal of women and the potential for women’s autonomy in real life.

• Ideal for students and general readers interested in feminist literary criticism and Anna Karenina.

This study will appeal to anyone seeking to explore the novel’s deeper feminist themes and the socio-cultural forces that influenced Tolstoy's portrayal of women.