Synopses & Reviews
The twelve essays in this volume break new ground in showing the ways in which ideas about sexuality, gender, and the body have shaped and been shaped by Russian literature, history, art, and philosophy from the medieval period to the present day. The essays draw on a wide range of approaches - from post-modern and Foucault-influenced theories to more traditional historical and philological readings - but all are informed by feminist theory and practice in studying how gender has shaped the representations of bodies and sexual pleasures in Russia. Subjects discussed include the ¹gure of the prostitute in early Soviet writing, travel narratives about eighteenth-century Russian manners, and the contemporary writer Tatiana Tolstaya's use of gender stereotypes. Familiar writers, such as Tolstoy, Chekhov, Tsvetaeva, Berdyaev, and Platonov, appear in a new light when seen through the prism of gender and sexuality.
Synopsis
“This fascinating volume provides a whole range of new insights on linguistic, social, literary, and cultural matters.”—Modern Language Review
Synopsis
A Stanford University Press classic.
Synopsis
Twelve groundbreaking essays show the varied and complex ways in which ideas about sexuality, gender, and the body have shaped and been influenced by Russian literature, history, art, and philosophy from the medieval period to the present day.
Synopsis
Shows how sexuality, gender, and the body in Russian culture have shaped and been shaped by Russian literature, history, art, and philosophy from the medieval period to the present day.
About the Author
Jane T. Costlow is Associate Professor of Russian at Bates College. Stephanie Sandler is Professor of Russian and of Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College. Judith Vowles is an independent scholar.
Table of Contents
Introduction Jane T. Costlow, Stephanie Sandler and Judith Vowles; Part I. The Cultural History of Sexual Representation: 1. Sexual vocabulary in medieval Russia Eve Levin; 2. Marriage àla russe Judith Vowles; 3. A stick with two ends, or, misogyny in popular culture: a case study of the puppet text 'Petrushka' Catriona Kelly; 4. Redrawing the margins of Russian vanguard art: Natalia Goncharova's trial for pornography in 1910 Jane A. Sharp; 5. Prostitution unbound: representations of sexual and political anxieties in postrevolutionary Russia Elizabeth A. Wood; Part II. Literary Versions of Sex and Body: 6. Kiss and tell: narrative desire and discretion Cathy Popkin; 7. Loving in bad taste: eroticism and literary excess in Marina Tsvetaeva's 'The Tale of Sonechka' Svetlana Boym; 8. Laid out in lavender: perceptions of Lesbian love in Russian literature and criticism of the silver age, 1893-1917 Diana Lewis Burgin; 9. Monsters monomaniacal, marital and medical: Tatiana Tolstaya's regenerative use of gender stereotypes Helena Boscilo; Part III. The Maternal Body: 10. The pastoral source: representations of the maternal breast in nineteenth-century Russia Jane T. Costlow; 11. Motherhood in a cold climate: the poetry and career of Maria Shkapskaya Barbara Heldt; 12. Historectomies: on the metaphysics of reproduction in a Utopian age Eric Naiman; Notes; Index.