Leona Toker organizes and characterizes both fictional narratives and survivors' memoirs as she explores the changing hallmarks of literature from the Soviet Gulag, focusing on key themes that recur (arrest, the stages of trial, imprisonment, labor camps, exile, escapes, special punishment, the role of chance, and deprivation) and the historical, political as well as social contexts of the works. Toker's readings are intended to provide insight into the circumstances that determined a prisoner's experience of the Soviet penal system. Special attention is devoted to the writings of Shalamov and Solzhenitsyn, and many works by women are addressed.
