Creating the Empress

"In Creating the Empress, Vera Proskurina examines the interaction between power and poetry in creating the imperial image of Catherine the Great, providing a detailed analysis of a wide range of Russian literary works from this period, particularly the main Classical myths associated with Catherine (Amazon, Astraea, Pallas Athena, Felicitas, Fortune, etc.), as well as how these Classical subjects affirmed imperial ideology and the monarch’s power. Each chapter of the book revolves around the major events of Catherine’s reign (and some major literary works) that give a broad framework to discuss the evolution of important recurring motifs and images.

The heroic ethos in the "Slovo o polku Igoreve": A comparative study in the light of early Western European epic

This thesis is a comparative study of heroism and its literary expression in the Slovo o polku Igoreve and its Western European counterparts. The need for such a study was dictated by the Slovaks unique position within the corpus of Russian medieval literature and its hitherto virtual exclusion from major studies of European literature of the same genre. The principal aim is to draw the Slovo into the sphere of European heroic tradition by establishing a case for the existence in Kievan Rus' of a native heroic tradition whose literary manifestations hold certain features in common with western heroic literature. Although the non-Russian texts used here represent different historical periods, the criterion which renders them useful for comparison with the Slovo is that they reflect similar social and cultural conditions, a stage of literary development somewhere on the threshold between the pagan heroic age and the relatively recent Christian ethos. Despite the absence of other Russian works closely resembling the Slovo, the chronicles, military tales and ecclesiastical writings of medieval Rus' have yielded much that is useful to this study, as have also the oral traditions of Russia and her neighbours. The five chapters comprising this thesis are devoted to the following: defining heroism and identifying the qualities which make a hero; the influence of both Christianity and paganism on the heroic world view and its literary expression; literary concepts of time, history and geography; the conventional roles of the supporting cast surrounding the hero; and the recurrent images, themes and motifs in heroic literature not already dealt with in full. Many of the conclusions drawn from this study have also served a secondary aim by repeatedly demonstrating, on the basis of literary and ideological criteria, that the Slovo can only belong to the pre-Tatar period

Early Modern Russian Letters

Early Modern Russian Letters: Texts and Contexts brings together twenty essays by Marcus C. Levitt, a leading scholar of eighteenth-century Russian literature. The essays address a spectrum of works and issues that shaped the development of modern Russian literature, from authorship and philosophy to gender and religion in Russian Enlightenment culture. The first part of the collection explores the career and works of Alexander Sumarokov, who played a formative role in literary life of his day. In the essays of the second part Levitt argues that the Enlightenment’s privileging of vision played an especially important role in eighteenth-century Russian self-image, and that its “occularcentrism” was profoundly shaped by Orthodox religious views. Early Modern Russian Letters offers a series of original and provocative explorations of a vital but little studied period

Early Modern Russian Letters

Early Modern Russian Letters: Texts and Contexts brings together twenty essays by Marcus C. Levitt, a leading scholar of eighteenth-century Russian literature. The essays address a spectrum of works and issues that shaped the development of modern Russian literature, from authorship and philosophy to gender and religion in Russian Enlightenment culture. The first part of the collection explores the career and works of Alexander Sumarokov, who played a formative role in literary life of his day. In the essays of the second part Levitt argues that the Enlightenment’s privileging of vision played an especially important role in eighteenth-century Russian self-image, and that its “occularcentrism” was profoundly shaped by Orthodox religious views. Early Modern Russian Letters offers a series of original and provocative explorations of a vital but little studied period

Freedom from Violence and Lies

Freedom from Violence and Lies is a collection of forty-one essays by Simon Karlinsky (1924–2009), a prolific and controversial scholar of modern Russian literature, sexual politics, and music who taught in the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures from 1964 to 1991. Among Karlinsky’s full-length works are major studies of Marina Tsvetaeva and Nikolai Gogol, Russian Drama from Its Beginnings to the Age of Pushkin; editions of Anton Chekhov’s letters; writings by Russian émigrés; and correspondence between Vladimir Nabokov and Edmund Wilson. Karlinsky also wrote frequently for professional journals and mainstream publications like the New York Times Book Review and the Nation. The present volume is the first collection of such shorter writings, spanning more than three decades. It includes twenty-seven essays on literary topics and fourteen on music, seven of which have been newly translated from the Russian originals

Visual Texts, Ceremonial Texts, Texts of Exploration: Collected Articles on the Representation of Russian Monarchy

Visual Texts, Ceremonial Texts, Texts of Exploration continues the work begun in Russian Monarchy: Representation and Rule, which analyzed the interplay between the symbolic representations of Russian monarchs and the legal and institutional instruments of their rule. The articles in this volume examine the texts that, through various media, revealed the myths and scenarios conveying the goals and ideals the monarchy sought to elevate before the elite of the empire and, later, the public at large. Russian monarchy inhabited a highly visual culture, comprising court ceremonials, parades, public festivities, and celebrations. It mobilized the arts through painting, prints, popular pictures (lubki), and even opera. This book examines that artistic culture, focusing on several aspects. Parts I and II analyze imagery and ceremony and their relation to the verbal texts that ascribed and defined their meanings. Part III details the way texts of exploration inspired the explorers who widened Russia’s engagement with the world. Parts IV and V address key texts of intellectual history and reflect on the scholarly and methodological influences on Wortman’s approach to history

Visual Texts, Ceremonial Texts, Texts of Exploration

Visual Texts, Ceremonial Texts, Texts of Exploration continues the work begun in Russian Monarchy: Representation and Rule, which analyzed the interplay between the symbolic representations of Russian monarchs and the legal and institutional instruments of their rule. The articles in this volume examine the texts that, through various media, revealed the myths and scenarios conveying the goals and ideals the monarchy sought to elevate before the elite of the empire and, later, the public at large

Images of the Petrine era in Russian history painting

‘Images of the Petrine Era in Russian History Painting’ examines the changing iconography of Petr I (1672-1725) in nineteenth-century Russian painting, and its relationship with Petr’s symbolic role in the cultural debate between the Westernisers and the Slavophiles over the interpretation of the Russian past and the direction of Russia’s future. Artistic developments are discussed against a background of history, historiography and literature. Paintings by Academic artists that were produced as contributions to the official cult of Petr, fostered by Nikolai I, are explored as expressions of aspects of the archetypal Hero. The evolution of historical genre painting, and particularly the developments introduced by Shvarts in the 1860s, are examined as a crucial component of the context for the emergence of the Peredvizhniki. The main focus of this study comprises the Realist history paintings of the Peredvizhniki. The pursuit of historical truth, after Aleksandr Il’s relaxation of censorship in the late 1850s, became a significant factor in the application of Realism to history painting. The treatment of Petrine themes by the Peredvizhniki in their First Exhibition in 1871 is discussed in relation to the celebrations for Petr’s bicentenary in 1872. Ge’s ‘Petr I interrogates Tsarevich Aleksei Petrovich at Peterhof’ is analysed in detail for its importance as the first treatment in a Realist style of a controversial historical incident which was unfavourable to Petr. Evidence, exemplified by Myasoedov’s ‘The Grandfather of the Russian Fleet’, is brought forward which suggests continuities between the Academy and the Peredvizhniki. The Peredvizhniki’s varied approaches to Petrine themes are examined, emphasising the group’s lack of ideological uniformity. History paintings are explored in their social and cultural context, for instance, nineteenth-century depictions of Tsarevna Sof’ya Alekseevna and the rise of Russian feminism, and the effect of Surikov’s personal experience of cultural conflict on his works

Performing the national past: history on stage in imperial Russia

This dissertation closely examines 18th- and 19th-century Russian historical dramas set in the Time of Troubles, which was the era of dynastic crisis and the first civil war in Russian history during 1598-1613. The project demonstrates that this subgenre was essential for the development of modern theatre in Russia and for articulating vital concerns about Russian national identity. Historical drama became the first type of plays developed by the earliest modern Russian playwrights and stimulated the emergence of original stage practices. I discuss several plays that contributed significantly to the national discourse and stage history, written by the following major and minor authors: Alexander Sumarokov, Alexander Pushkin, Matvei Kriukovskii, Nestor Kukol’nik, Aleksey Khomiakov, Mikhail Pogodin, Nikolai Chaev, Alexander Ostrovsky, and Aleksey K. Tolstoy. I demonstrate that, from its beginning, modern Russian theatre was not an imitative art form but, rather, an amalgamation of various foreign influences and older Russian folk performances. I discuss articles and dramas that display proto-nationalist ideas as early as in the 1790s and 1800s, a few decades before the commonly known Romantic debates on the nation, national literature, and “narodnost’.” I also explore how the historical theatre of the 1860s becomes the experimental grounds where the concept of “historical truth” (historical accuracy) is put into practice. I maintain that this less known and less studied work of playwrights and directors of the 1860s laid the foundation for a wide range of cultural phenomena in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including historical balls, the aesthetic of the Moscow Art Theatre, and the artistic rediscovery of the national heritage during the “Silver Age.” I offer close readings of the plays and utilize the inventory of performance studies in order to discuss stage productions. I also apply the theories of modern-era nation and nationalism and include elements of cultural history. Generally, my project makes a contribution to the underexplored scholarly area of the history of pre-20th-century Russian theatre and performance

M. Iu. Lermontov. His Life and Work

Displaying his characteristic balance between sympathy and detachment, Vickery has first provided a concise, but richly detailed account of Lermontov's brief and tragic life. His approach is above all sensible - down-to-earth and fair. Lermontov was a romantic, really the only Russian poet who fully fits that designation. Vickery understands very well the romantic ethos, but he is no romantic him self. He treats with tolerant but ironic amusement the adolescent posturing of Lermontov's early Byronism. He is less tolerant of the frequent arrogance and even cruelty in Lermontov's behavior toward those close to him, especially women. On the other hand, Vickery recognizes Lermontov's genuine longing for intimacy and affection and credits his capacity for friendship and generosity. He also effectively traces all these conflicting im pulses in Lermontov's poetry