A Semiotic Analysis of the Short Stories of Leonid Andreev (1900-1909)

Abstract

This book applies the techniques of semiotic analysis to a selection of short stories by Leonid Andreev in an attempt to offer one answer to the problems of categorizing Andreev’s unique art and placing it within a literary-evolutionary perspective. Drawing on a range of literary theory from early Russian Formalism onwards, the study proceeds from one level to another according to a principle of ‘degree of abstraction’, so that each level constitutes firstly an independent account of Andreev’s texts in itself, and secondly one stage in an overall analysis. This book, originally published in paperback in 1990 under the ISBN 978-0-947623-35-7, was made Open Access in 2024 as part of the MHRA Revivals programme.