Ghostly Paradoxes: Modern Spiritualism and Russian Culture in the Age of Realism Contributor(s): Vinitsky, Ilya (Author) |
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ISBN: 0802099351 ISBN-13: 9780802099358 Publisher: University of Toronto Press OUR PRICE: $84.55 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: July 2009 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Eastern European (see Also Russian & Former Soviet Union) - Literary Criticism | Russian & Former Soviet Union |
Dewey: 891.709 |
Physical Information: 1" H x 6.3" W x 9" (1.20 lbs) 320 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Russia - Cultural Region - Eastern Europe |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The culture of nineteenth-century Russia is often seen as dominated by realism in the arts, as exemplified by the novels of Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev, the paintings of 'the Wanderers, ' and the historical operas of Modest Mussorgsky. Paradoxically, nineteenth-century Russia was also consumed with a passion for spiritualist activities such as table-rappings, seances of spirit communication, and materialization of the 'spirits.' Ghostly Paradoxes examines the surprising relationship between spiritualist beliefs and practices and the positivist mindset of the Russian Age of Realism (1850-80) to demonstrate the ways in which the two disparate movements influenced each other. Foregrounding the important role that nineteenth-century spiritualism played in the period's aesthetic, ideological, and epistemological debates, Ilya Vinitsky challenges literary scholars who have considered spiritualism to be archaic and peripheral to other cultural issues of the time. Ghostly Paradoxes is an innovative work of literary scholarship that traces the reactions of Russia's major realist authors to spiritualist events and doctrines and demonstrates that both movements can be understood only when examined together. |
Contributor Bio(s): Vinitsky, Ilya: - Ilya Vinitsky is an assistant professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania. |