Self and Story in Russian History

Russians have often been characterized as people with souls rather than selves. Self and Story in Russian History challenges the portrayal of the Russian character as selfless, self-effacing, or self-torturing by exploring the texts through which Russians have defined themselves as private persons and shaped their relation to the cultural community. The stories of self under consideration here reflect the perspectives of men and women from the last two hundred years, ranging from westernized nobles to simple peasants, from such famous people as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Akhmatova, and Nicholas II to lowly religious sectarians.

Fifteen distinguished historians and literary scholars situate the narratives of self in their historical context and show how, since the eighteenth century, Russians have used expressive genres -- including diaries, novels, medical case studies, films, letters, and theater -- to make political and moral statements.

The first book to examine the narration of self as idea and ideal in Russia, this vital work contemplates the shifting histo

Preface

vii

List of Abbreviations

ix

Introduction

1

(19)

Laura Engelstein

Stephanie Sandler

Bakhtin, Lotman, Vygotsky, and Lydia Ginzburg on Types of Selves: A Tribute

20

(26)

Caryl Emerson

The Obverse of Stalinism: Akhmatova's Self-Serving Charisma of Selflessness

46

(23)

Alexander Zholkovsky

Writing the Self in the Time of Terror: Alexander Afinogenov's Diary of 1937

69

(25)

Jochen Hellbeck

Publicizing the Imperial Image in 1913

94

(26)

Richard Wortman

The Silent Movie Melodrama: Evgenii Bauer Fashions the Heroine's Self

120

(21)

Louise McReynolds

Girl Talk: Lydia Charskaia and Her Readers

141

(27)

Susan Larsen

The Russian Myth of Oscar Wilde

168

(21)

Evgenii Bershtein

Hysterical Episodes: Case Histories and Silent Subjects

189

(28)

Cathy Popkin

Weber into Tkachi: On a Russian Reading of Gerhart Hauptmann's Play The Weavers

217

(25)

Reginald E. Zelnik

Tolstoy's Diaries: The Inaccessible Self

242

(24)

Irina Paperno

Stories Selves: Constructing Characters in The Brothers Karamazov

266

(14)

William Mills Todd III

Self and Sensibility in Radishchev's Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow: Dialogism, Relativism, and the Moral Spectator

280

(25)

Andrew Kahn

Enlightenment and Tradition: The Aestheticized Life of an Eighteenth-Century Provincial Merchant

305

(25)

David L. Ransel

Personal Testimony and the Defense of Faith: Skoptsy Telling Tales

330

(21)

Laura Engelstein

Notes on Contributors

351

(4)

Index

355

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Self and Story in Russian History

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials