Irina Reyfman1; 1 Columbia University in the City of New York, United States
Discussion
Sofia and Anna both were diarists and memoirists, and both used their diaries while writing the memoirs, but revised diaristic reports differently. Sofia’s revisions changed the genre of the biography of a great man by shifted the boundaries between public and private and presenting Tolstoy the writer as also a flawed sexual being who disregarded his wife’s sexual needs. In contrast, Anna produced a traditional great man’s biography by erasing from her diaristic reports Dostoevsky’s imperfections and details of his intimate life.
