A History of Women's Writing in Russia

by Adele Marie Barker, Jehanne M. Gheith

Overview

A History of Women's Writing in Russia traces comprehensively the lives and works of Russia's women writers from the Middle Ages to the present. Contributors have addressed the often surprising contexts within which women's writing has been produced. Chapters reveal a flourishing literary tradition where none was thought to exist, looking at how Russia's women writers articulated their own experience, and re-assesing their relationship to the dominant male tradition. The volume is supported by extensive reference features including a bibliography and guide to writers and their works.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521576109
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/03/2009
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	1580L (what's this?)

About the Author

Adele Marie Barker is Professor of Russian and Slavic Languages and Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies at the University of Arizona. She is the author of The Mother Syndrome in the Russian Folk Imagination (1986), and co-author of Dialogues/Dialogi: Literary and Cultural Exchanges between (ex) Soviet and American Women (1994), and she is the editor of Consuming Russia: Popular Culture, Sex, and Society since Gorbachev (1999).

Jehanne M Gheith is Associate Professor of Slavic and Women's Studies at Duke University. She is the author, with B. Norton, of An Improper Profession: Women, Gender and Journalism in Late Imperial Russia.

Table of Contents

Introduction Adele Barker and Jehanne M Gheith; 1. Women's image in Russian medieval literature Rosalind McKenzie; 2. Sappho, Corinna and Niobe: genres and personae in Russian women's writing, 1760–1820 Catriona Kelly; 3. The inexperienced muse: Russian women and poetry in the first half of the nineteenth century Judith Vowles; 4. Women of the 1830s and 1850s: alternative periods Jehanne Gheith; 5. 'A particle of ourself': pre-Revolutionary autobiography by Russian women writers Mary Zirin; 6. The women of Russian Montparnasse, Paris, 1920–1940 Catherine Ciepiela; 7. Women in Russian symbolism: beyond the albegra of love Jenifer Presto; 8. The Eastern path of exile: Russian women's writing in China Olga Bakich and Carol Ueland; 9. Realist prose writers, 1881–1929 Rosalind Marsh; 10. Women and gender in post-symbolist poetry and the Stalin era Katherine Hodgson; 11. Writing the female body politic (1945–1985) Beth Holmgren; 12. In their own words: Soviet women writers and the search for self Anna Krylova; 13. Women's poetry since the sixties Stephanie Sandler; 14. The persistence of memory: women's prose since the sixties Adele Barker; 15. Perestroika and post Soviet prose: from dazzle to dispersal Helena Goscilo.

Editorial Reviews

"...an excellent, much-needed and informative study...an impressive combination of intellectual rigor and stylistic brilliance." Slavic and European Journal

"...a valuable addition to the growing corpus of serious scholarship on Russian women's writing." Slavic Review

"The editors convincingly argue that by ignoring the women writers, earlier scholars have presented an incomplete, even distorted, picture of the course of Russian literature, especially in the last two centuries.... The combination of jargon-free style, nonpolemical stance, and intelligent, informed analysis renders this book necessary for everyone interested in Russian literary history and women's studies, from general readers to specialized scholars." Choice

"Well-conceived and handsomely realized, it includes contributions from almost all 'the usual suspects' and brings the collected wisdom of scholars in the field to new levels of completeness and sophistication. A History of Women's Writing in Russia is an indispensable source for anyone concerned with women's writing in Russia." The Russian Review

From the Publisher