A Woman's Empire: Russian Women and Imperial Expansion in Asia

by Katya Hokanson

Overview

A Woman’s Empire explores a new dimension of Russian imperialism: women actively engaged in the process of late imperial expansion. The book investigates how women writers, travellers, and scientists who journeyed to and beyond Central Asia participated in Russia’s "civilizing" and colonizing mission, utilizing newly found educational opportunities while navigating powerful discourses of femininity as well as male-dominated science.

Katya Hokanson shows how these Russian women resisted domestic roles in a variety of ways. The women writers include a governor general’s wife, a fiction writer who lived in Turkestan, and a famous Theosophist, among others. They make clear the perspectives of the ruling class and outline the special role of women as describers and recorders of information about local women, and as builders of "civilized" colonial Russian society with its attendant performances and social events. Although the bulk of the women’s writings, drawings, and photography is primarily noteworthy for its cultural and historical value, A Woman’s Empire demonstrates how the works also add dimension and detail to the story of Russian imperial expansion and illuminates how women encountered, imagined, and depicted Russia’s imperial Other during this period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487545611
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	10/03/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Katya Hokanson is an associate professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One: Women and Empire: Imperial Domesticity and Its Discontents

1. Reinforcing the State at the Imperial Periphery: The Governor General’s Wife
2. Turkestan through Russian Eyes: Elena Apreleva’s Central Asian Sketches

Part Two: Theosophy, Hunting, and Constructing the Nation in the Shadow of the Great Game

3. Propagandist of Russian Imperialism: Madame Blavatsky in India
4. Hunting, Photography, and National Rivalry: In the Pamirs

Part Three: Science in the Name of the Nation: Women Scientists, Archaeologists, and Ethnographers

5. In Pursuit of Imperial Knowledge: Ol’ga Fedchenko, Aleksandra Potanina, Praskovia Uvarova, and Anna Rossikova

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Olga Maiorova

"Katya Hokanson's new book stands out as a valuable contribution to the study of the Russian empire and its literary representations. It offers the most comprehensive analysis of female writers travelling to the eastern borderlands of the empire and beyond. By focusing on the issues of gender and colonial difference, Hokanson explores when, how, and with what results women added their unique perspectives to the predominantly male business of empire-building."

Anindita Banerjee

"Empire is, by default, a masculinist project. A Woman's Empire challenges this view from both within and below. It takes the reader on a breathtaking journey across imperial Russia's Asiatic frontiers, seen through the eyes of a remarkable set of women writers, artists, scientists, and spiritual leaders who contributed as much to the imperial project as they critiqued and undermined its foundational assumptions."

Editorial Reviews

"Empire is, by default, a masculinist project. A Woman’s Empire challenges this view from both within and below. It takes the reader on a breathtaking journey across imperial Russia’s Asiatic frontiers, seen through the eyes of a remarkable set of women writers, artists, scientists, and spiritual leaders who contributed as much to the imperial project as they critiqued and undermined its foundational assumptions."

—Anindita Banerjee, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Cornell University

"Katya Hokanson’s new book stands out as a valuable contribution to the study of the Russian empire and its literary representations. It offers the most comprehensive analysis of female writers travelling to the eastern borderlands of the empire and beyond. By focusing on the issues of gender and colonial difference, Hokanson explores when, how, and with what results women added their unique perspectives to the predominantly male business of empire-building."

—Olga Maiorova, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan

From the Publisher