%P 401-440(40)
%D 2007
%O Published by Maney
%X This article examines the distinctive Leskovian composition of recurrent, linking and overlapping detail and motifs — and the density and open-ended character of the meanings they generate — in his classic story Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uezda (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, 1865). The analysis begins by showing motif in a metapoetic function and then considers at length the three main overarching and archetypal motifs — water, life and death; the house and imprisonment; the garden and sensuality; it concludes by moving to a consideration of the architectonics of the text's composition, its key themes and symbolic framework. Study of this aspect of his poetics has a key role to play in Leskov studies; at the same time it contributes to the conceptualization of his characteristic heterogeneity and to an understanding of his overall worldview.
%A R. Aizlewood
%N 3
%J Slavonic and East European Review
%V 85
%L discovery12885
%T Leskov's Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uezda: composition and symbolic framework