Fallacy Of Silver Age

While rigorously living up to the best traditions of literary-historical scholarship, the author manages to present his material in a light-hearted and entertaining way which will fascinate both the scholar of Russian literature and the interested observer of Russian culture alike. In this highly original study, Omry Ronnen critically examines the term \"Silver Age\", which over the years has gained such wide currency among historians and connoisseurs of 20th century Russian culture. The author traces the origin and the controversial development of what he condemns as an influential misnomer. \"I do not know who was the first to use this appellation, on whom the blame for launching it falls, \" lamented the late Russian-American literary historian, Gleb Struve. Ronen sets out to debunk the myth that attributes invention of the term to Nikolai Berdiaev, and in turn traces this widely used catchword in the critical idiom from an obscure, avante-garde manifesto to the present day.