conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy /
Susan Layton.
New York, NY :
Cambridge University Press,
1994.
xi, 354 pages :
maps ;
23 cm
Cambridge studies in Russian literature
Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-347) and index.
1. Introduction -- 2. The poet and terra incognita -- 3. Imaginative geography -- 4. Sentimental pilgrims -- 5. The national stake in Asia -- 6. The Pushkinian mountaineer -- 7. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky's interchange with the tribesman -- 8. Early Lermontov and oriental machismo -- 9. Little orientalizers -- 10. Feminizing the Caucasus -- 11. Georgia as an oriental woman -- 12. The anguished poet in uniform -- 13. Tolstoy's revolt against romanticism -- 14. Post-war appropriation of romanticism -- 15. Tolstoy's confessional indictment -- 16. Concluding observations.
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By dealing with imperialism in Georgia as well, the study shows how the varied treatment of the Caucasus in literature helped Russians construct a satisfying identity for themselves as a semi-European, semi-Asian people.
This is the first book to provide a synthesizing study of Russian writing about the Caucasus during the nineteenth-century age of empire-building. From Pushkin's ambivalent portrayal of an alpine Circassia to Tolstoy's condemnation of tsarist aggression against Muslim tribes in Hadji Murat, the literary analysis is firmly set in its historical context, and the responses of the Russian readership to receive extensive attention. As well as exploring literature as such, Susan Layton introduces material from travelogues, oriental studies, ethnography, memoirs, and the utterances of tsarist officials and military commanders. While showing how literature often underwrote imperialism, the book carefully explores the tensions between the Russian state's ideology of a European mission to civilize the Muslim mountain peoples, and romantic perceptions of those tribes as noble primitives whose extermination was no cause for celebration.
Russian literature and empire.
Die Stadt ohne Juden
Romanticism-- Russia.
Russian literature-- 19th century-- History and criticism.
Caucase dans la littérature.
Littérature russe-- 19e siècle-- Histoire et critique.
Orient dans la littérature.
Romantisme-- Russie.
Russie dans la littérature.
International relations.
Kaukasus
Letterkunde.
Literatur
Literature.
Littérature russe-- 20e siècle-- Histoire et critique.
Romanticism-- Russia.
Romanticism.
Russian literature-- 19th century-- History and criticism.