Russia's Carnival

Russia's Carnival PDF Author: Christoph Neidhart
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742520424
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This colorfully drawn and acutely observed book explores Russia by engaging all our senses. Today's Russia smells different from the Soviet Union. The country looks and sounds different, its touch is different and its food tastes different. Thus, Christoph Neidhart argues, Russia is truly a changed country from the Soviet Union it was, little more than a decade ago. Russian society is rapidly urbanizing and modernizing, as can be perceived by all senses, including the awareness of space and the conception of time. After almost a century, space can be privately owned and freely traded; time too has become commodified. New role models and new ways to express social status are emerging. Russia has become a 'monetized' economy as the old Soviet practice of provision by networking has grown obsolete. Russia thus readies itself gradually to grow into a Western-style, middle-class society with a free market and democratic polity. The author assesses these rapid changes using the evocative metaphor of the carnival to understand the chaotic inversion of the Communist structure of society. He explores the transition's traps and shortcomings--such as the privatization of politics and the looting of the state's assets--and compares this process to the modernization Western society underwent a century earlier.

Petrushka

Petrushka PDF Author: Catriona Kelly
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521108997
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Petrushka, the Russian equivalent of Punch and Judy, was one of the most popular spectacles at fairgrounds and in city courtyards for over a century. Catriona Kelly's study, the first to appear in English, traces the history of Petrushka, illustrating how it reflected the tensions of Russian urban life both before and after the Revolution. Written from a standpoint informed by literary theory, her book at the same time breaks open the categories traditionally applied, both in the Soviet Union and in the West, to the study of Russian literature and popular culture. Contemporary interpretations of Petrushka on the street, high-cultural appropriations of it for a bourgeois and intellectual readership (notably the famous ballet by Benois and Stravinsky), and adaptations made for agit-prop purposes are all analysed. Based on a wide range of unusual materials, this lively and very readable account will appeal not only to literary specialists, but also to those interested in cultural politics, folklore, women's studies and popular theatre.

Russia's Theatrical Past

Russia's Theatrical Past PDF Author: Claudia R. Jensen
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253056373
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
In the 17th century, only Moscow's elite had access to the magical, vibrant world of the theater. In Russia's Theatrical Past, Claudia Jensen, Ingrid Maier, Stepan Shamin, and Daniel C. Waugh mine Russian and Western archival sources to document the history of these productions as they developed at the court of the Russian tsar. Using such sources as European newspapers, diplomats' reports, foreign travel accounts, witness accounts, and payment records, they also uncover unique aspects of local culture and politics of the time. Focusing on Northern European theatrical traditions, the authors explore the concept of intertheater, which describes transmissions between performing traditions, and reveal how the Muscovite court's interest in theater and other musical entertainment was strongly influenced by diplomatic contacts. Russia's Theatrical Past, made possible by an international research collaborative, offers fresh insight into how and why Russians went to such great efforts to rapidly develop court theater in the 17th century.

The Venice Carnival

The Venice Carnival PDF Author: Kiblitsky Joseph
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783863849672
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Russian Ballet

The Russian Ballet PDF Author: Alfred Edwin Johnson
Publisher: London : Constable & Company
ISBN:
Category : Ballet
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description


Fruits of Her Plume: Essays on Contemporary Russian Women's Culture

Fruits of Her Plume: Essays on Contemporary Russian Women's Culture PDF Author: Helena Goscilo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317470028
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
The 1980s witnessed the ascendency of Russian women in multiple spheres of artistic creation, including literature, film, and painting. This volume may thus be said to engage not only women's artistic production but, indeed, the best and most colourful of recent Russian culture. Treating contemporary Russian women's creativity, it approaches women's texts, films, and canvasses from a range of perspectives, from anti-gendered to feminist. Some of the essays introduce writers not previously well studied, others challenge conventional interpretations and assumptions, while still others yield original viewpoints through novel juxtapositions. In addition to offering insights into the various artists under analysis, the essays map the wide terrain of issues and methodologies proliferating in cultural criticism today, and mirror the diversity that is one of the most appealing features of women's creativity in contemporary Russia.

Russian Postmodernism

Russian Postmodernism PDF Author: Mikhail N. Epstein
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782388648
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 601

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Book Description
Recent decades have been decisive for Russia not only politically but culturally as well. The end of the Cold War has enabled Russia to take part in the global rise and crystallization of postmodernism. This volume investigates the manifestations of this crucial trend in Russian fiction, poetry, art, and spirituality, demonstrating how Russian postmodernism is its own unique entity. It offers a point of departure and valuable guide to an area of contemporary literary-cultural studies insufficiently represented in English-language scholarship. This second edition includes additional essays on the topic and a new introduction examining the most recent developments.

The Literature of Roguery in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century Russia

The Literature of Roguery in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century Russia PDF Author: Marcia A. Morris
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 9780810117532
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
This study of the flowering and the antecedents of the picaresque in 17th century Russia seeks to offer new insight into both the genre and its broad appeal to Russian readers. Morris resurrects 18th century picaresques, revealing their fusion of Western and indigenous aesthetics.

Russian Literature and Its Demons

Russian Literature and Its Demons PDF Author: Pamela Davidson
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781571817587
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
Merezhkovsky's bold claim that "all Russian literature is, to a certain degree, a struggle with the temptation of demonism" is undoubtedly justified. And yet, despite its evident centrality to Russian culture, the unique and fascinating phenomenon of Russian literary demonism has so far received little critical attention. This substantial collection fills the gap. A comprehensive analytical introduction by the editor is follwed by a series of fourteen essays, written by eminent scholars in their fields. The first part explores the main shaping contexts of literary demonism: the Russian Orthodox and folk tradition, the demonization of historical figures, and views of art as intrinsically demonic. The second part traces the development of a literary tradition of demonism in the works of authors ranging from Pushkin and Lermontov, Gogol and Dostoevsky, through to the poets and prose writers of modernism (including Blok, Akhmatova, Bely, Sologub, Rozanov, Zamiatin), and through to the end of the 20th century.

Political Culture and Civil Society in Russia and the New States of Eurasia

Political Culture and Civil Society in Russia and the New States of Eurasia PDF Author: Vladimir Tismaneanu
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
ISBN: 9781563243653
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.