Slavophile Thought And the Politics of Cultural Nationalism

by Rabow-edling, Susanna

• ISBN13: 9780791466933
• ISBN10: 0791466930
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-07-06
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

"Susanna Rabow-Edling examines the first theory of the Russian nation, formulated by the Slavophiles in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and its relationship to the West. Using cultural nationalism as a tool for understanding Slavophile thinking, she argues that a Russian national identity was not shaped in opposition to Europe in order to separate Russia from the West. Rather, it originated as an attempt to counter the feeling of cultural backwardness among Russian intellectuals by making it possible for Russian culture to assume a leading role in the universal progress of humanity. This reinterpretation of Slavophile ideas about the Russian nation offers a more complex image of the role of Europe and the West in shaping a Russian national identity."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(14)
A Dual Crisis of Identity	15	(20)
The Problem of Imitation	35	(24)
Conceptions of the Nation	59	(14)
The Russian Enlightenment and the Westernizers	73	(12)
The Slavophile Notion of a Russian Enlightenment	85	(16)
Cultural Nationalism as a Project for Social Change	101	(16)
The Slavophile Project for Social Change	117	(18)
Conclusion	135	(10)
Notes	145	(26)
Bibliography	171	(10)
Index	181