Early Modern Russian Letters: Texts and Contexts

Marcus Levitt

Open Access Published by Academic Studies Press 2009

Early Modern Russian Letters

Texts and Contexts

Marcus Levitt
Funded by: National Endowment for the Humanities and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program

In the series Studies in Russian and Slavic Literatures, Cultures, and History

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781618116741

Overview
Contents

About this book

Early Modern Russian Letters: Texts and Contexts brings together twenty essays by Marcus C. Levitt, a leading scholar of eighteenth-century Russian literature. The essays address a spectrum of works and issues that shaped the development of modern Russian literature, from authorship and philosophy to gender and religion in Russian Enlightenment culture. The first part of the collection explores the career and works of Alexander Sumarokov, who played a formative role in literary life of his day. In the essays of the second part Levitt argues that the Enlightenment’s privileging of vision played an especially important role in eighteenth-century Russian self-image, and that its “occularcentrism” was profoundly shaped by Orthodox religious views. Early Modern Russian Letters offers a series of original and provocative explorations of a vital but little studied period.

Author / Editor information

Marcus Levitt (Ph.D. Columbia University, 1984) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Southern California. Dr. Levitt is known for both his work on eighteenth-century Russian culture and on Pushkin. Major publications include: Russian Literary Politics and the Pushkin Celebration of 1880 (Cornell University Press 1989), Early Modern Russian Writers, Late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, (Volume 150) in the series The Dictionary of Literary Biography (1995; Editor and contributor) and Making Russia Visible: The Status of the Visual in Eighteenth-century Russian Literature (forthcoming).

Reviews

Amanda Ewington, Davidson College:
"This volume will become indispensable to scholars specializing in eighteenth-century Russia. Further afield, specialists in the European Enlightenment will discover a wealth of scholarship about the Russian side of that story, much of it available for the first time in English. Levitt's collection weaves a rich tale about eighteenth-century Russia's linguistic development, the rise of its literary institution, and the complex interplay of Orthodoxy, westernizing secularization, and the heretofore overlooked dominance of the visual. Levitt writes lucidly and without jargon, making his ideas accessible and engaging for specialists and newcomers alike."

Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR:
''In this essay collection, Levitt (Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Southern California) addresses works and issues that shaped the development of modern Russian literature, ranging from authorship and philosophy to gender and religion in Russian Enlightenment culture. Essays in the first part of the book explore the career and works of Alexander Sumarokov, who played a formative role in establishing 18th century Russian literature. In the second part, the author argues that the Enlightenment's privileging of vision as the principal means of understanding the world played an especially important role in the development of early modern Russian culture, and that eighteenth-century Russian "occularcentrism" was profoundly shaped by Orthodox religious views."

D. Hutchins, Buena Vista University:
"In these essays, which include 18 previously published but here expanded and updated, Levitt (USC) brings into focus the letters, expository writings, and plays of Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov and his slanderous polemicist Vasily Trediakovsky. Supported by an immense body of quotations and passages, all well translated from the Russian originals, the essays offer Levitt's novel ideas on traditional and progressive trends in mid- to late-18th-century Russian culture. Marked by the author's sometimes - sarcastic commentaries on the literary epoch and its concerns, the book reflects Levitt's meticulous scholarship. The essays provide a wealth of information on topics, texts, and contexts -- e.g., Mikhail Lomonosov's odes, Czarina Catherine the Great's writings, Princess Dashkova's memoirs, Sumarokov's view on Russian orthography, Aleksandr Radishchev's dialectic observations in A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Fascinating arguments on the sources of Sumarokov's transposition of Shakespeare's Hamlet shed new light on the intellectual tenets of Russian classicism as Levitt ponders the possibility of Sumarokov's Lockean sensualism and the 18th-century Russian reception of Locke's writings. A valuable resource for students of Russian and comparative literature of this epoch. Summing up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty."

Irina Reyfman, Columbia University:
"The volume of articles by Marcus Levitt, a well-known expert of early modern Russian literature, embodies his pioneering work in this field. Levitt closes a glaring gap in the history of eighteenth-century Russian literature by providing a wealth of material and ideas about playwright and poet Alexander Sumarkov. Levitt goes on to offer an innovative approach to some of the most important questions of Russian eighteenth-century literature and culture. It is a pleasure to see the works by an admired colleague so handsomely presented in this thoroughly put together collection."

Mark Altshuller, Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages & Literatures, University of Pittsburgh:
"Professor Marcus Levitt, a leading scholar of eighteenth-century Russian literature, crowns years spent studying poet and playwright Alexander Sumarokov with a new collection of articles, some now made available in English for the first time. Containing a series of engaging essays on various aspects of Sumarokov’s oeuvre together with a variety of other studies concerning Russian culture, literature, history and philosophy, this volume will serve as an indispensable guide to all those studying eighteenth-century Russia for many years to come."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Part One. SUMAROKOV AND THE LITERA RY PROCESS OF HIS TIME
Preface Open Access Download PDF	3
1. Sumarokov: Life and Works Open Access Download PDF	6
2. Sumarokov’s Reading at the Academy of Sciences Library Open Access Download PDF	22
3. Censorship and Provocation: Th e Publishing History of Sumarokov’s “Two Epistles” Open Access Download PDF	44
4. Slander, Polemic, Criticism: Trediakovskii’s “Letter...from a Friend to a Friend” of 1750 and the Problem of Creating Russian Literary Criticism Open Access Download PDF	64
5. Sumarokov’s Russianized “Hamlet”: Texts and Contexts Open Access Download PDF	76
6. Sumarokov’s Drama “Th e Hermit”: On the Generic and Intellectual Sources of Russian Classicism Open Access Download PDF	103
7. “Th e First Russian Ballet”: Sumarokov’s “Sanctuary of Virtue” (1759) Defining a New Dance Open Access Download PDF	119
8. Was Sumarokov a Lockean Sensualist? On Locke’s Reception in Eighteenth-Century Russia Open Access Download PDF	158
9. Barkoviana and Russian Classicism Open Access Download PDF	173
10. Th e Illegal Staging of Sumarokov’s Sinav and Truvor in 1770 and the Problem of Authorial Status in Eighteenth-Century Russia Open Access Download PDF	190
11. Sumarokov and the Unified Poetry Book: His Triumphal Odes and Love Elegies Th rough the Prism of Tradition Open Access Download PDF	218
12. Th e Barbarians Among Us, or Sumarokov’s Views on Orthography Open Access Download PDF	248
Part Two. VISUALITY AND ORTHODOXY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RUSSIAN CULTURE
Preface Open Access Download PDF	267
13. Th e Rapprochement Between “Secular” and “Religious” in Mid to Late Eighteenth-Century Russian Culture Open Access Download PDF	269
14. The “Obviousness” of the Truth in Eighteenth-Century Russian Th ought Open Access Download PDF	294
15. Th e Theological Context of Lomonosov’s “Evening” and “Morning Meditations on God’s Majesty” Open Access Download PDF	305
16. The Ode as Revelation: On the Orthodox Theological Context of Lomonosov’s Odes Open Access Download PDF	320
17. An Antidote to Nervous Juice: Catherine the Great’s Debate with Chappe d’Auteroche over Russian Culture Open Access Download PDF	339
18. The Polemic with Rousseau over Gender and Sociability in E. S. Urusova’s Polion (1774) Open Access Download PDF	358
19. Virtue Must Advertise: Self Presentation in Dashkova’s Memoirs Open Access Download PDF	379
20. The Dialectic of Vision in Radishchev’s Journey fr om Petersburg to Moscow Open Access Download PDF	398
Sources Open Access Download PDF	413
Index Open Access Download PDF	415

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 440

eBook

Published: December 17, 2017
ISBN: 9781618116741