National Identity in Russian Culture: An Introduction

by Edited by Simon Franklin , Emma Widdis

• ISBN13: 9780521024297
• ISBN10: 0521024293
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What is Russia? Who are Russians? What is 'Russianness'? The question of national identity has long been a vexed one in Russia, and is particularly pertinent in the post-Soviet period. For a thousand years these questions have been central to the work of Russian writers, artists, musicians, film-makers, critics, politicians and philosophers. Questions of national self-identity permeate Russian cultural self-expression. This wide-ranging study, designed for students of Russian literature, culture, and history, explores aspects of national identity in Russian culture from medieval times to the present day. Written by an international team of scholars, the volume offers an accessible overview and a broad, multi-faceted introductory account of this central feature of Russian cultural history. The book is comprehensive and concise; it combines general surveys with a wide range of specific examples to convey the rich texture of Russian cultural expression over the past thousand years.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vii
Notes on contributors	ix
Preface	xi
Note on the transliteration of Russian	xiii
`All the Russias . . .'?	1	(8)
Simon Franklin
Emma Widdis
SECTION I. IDENTITIES IN TIME AND SPACE	9	(42)
Russia in time	11	(19)
Simon Franklin
Russia as space	30	(21)
Emma Widdis
SECTION II. CONTRASTIVE IDENTITIES: `US' AND `THEM'	51	(42)
`Us': Russians on Russianness	53	(21)
Hubertus F. Jahn
`Them': Russians on foreigners	74	(19)
Anthony Cross
SECTION III. `ESSENTIAL' IDENTITIES	93	(76)
Identity and religion	95	(21)
Simon Franklin
Music of the soul?	116	(16)
Marina Frolova-Walker
Identity in language?	132	(17)
Boris Gasparov
Byt: identity and everyday life	149	(20)
Catriona Kelly
SECTION IV. SYMBOLS OF IDENTITY	169	(48)
Monuments and identity	171	(26)
Lindsey Hughes
`Pushkin' and identity	197	(20)
Stephanie Sandler
Afterword	217	(2)
Notes	219	(12)
Selected further reading in English	231	(4)
Index	235