In ""Writing a Usable Past"", Brintlinger considers the interactions of post-Revolutionary Russian and emigre culture with the genre of biography. She argues that in the years after the Revolution, Russian writers looked to the great literary figures of the past to help them construct a post-Revolutionary present. Brintlinger looks at the biographical writing of Yuri Tynianov, Vladislav Khodasevich, and Mikhail Bulgakov, comparing their successful biography/ies to their failed attempts at biographies of Alexander Pushkin on the centennial anniversary of his death. Brintlinger argues that popular commemorations - exhibits, concerts, special issues of journals - were a more fitting biography than the genre of the 'usable past.'
- ISBN13 9780810125230
- Publish Date 1 November 2008 (first published 1 June 2000)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Northwestern University Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 264
- Language English