How Russia learned to write : literature and the Imperial Table of Ranks / Irina Reyfman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reyfman, Irina, author.

Series:

Publications of the Wisconsin Center for Pushkin Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, 1799-1837--Criticism and interpretation.

Authors, Russian.

Literature and state.

Russian literature.

Social aspects.

Russia.

Russian literature--18th century--History and criticism.

Russian literature--19th century--History and criticism.

Russian literature--18th century--Social aspects.

Russian literature--19th century--Social aspects.

Nobility--Russia.

Nobility.

Literature and state--Russia.

Authors, Russian--18th century.

Authors, Russian--19th century.

Russia--History.

History.

Russian literature--Social aspects.

Local Subjects:

Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, 1799-1837--Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 237 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2016]

Summary:

In the eighteenth century, as modern forms of literature began to emerge in Russia, most of the writers producing it were members of the nobility. As a result, their literary pursuits competed with strictly enforced obligations to imperial state service. Unique to Russia was the Table of Ranks, introduced by Emperor Peter the Great in 1722. Noblesse oblige was not just a lofty principle; aristocrats were expected to serve in the military, civil service, or the court, and their status among peers depended on advancement in ranks. Irina Reyfman illuminates the surprisingly diverse effects of the Table of Ranks on writers, their work, and literary culture in Russia. From Sumarokov and Derzhavin in the eighteenth century through Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and poets serving in the military in the nineteenth, state service affected the self-images of writers and the themes of their creative output. Reyfman also notes its effects on Russia's atypical course in the professionalization and social status of literary work. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 To Serve or to Write? Noble Writers in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries 20

2 Pushkin as Bureaucrat, Courtier, and Writer 44

3 The Hierarchy of Ranks according to Gogol 86

4 Poets in the Military: Denis Davydov, Aleksandr Polezhaev, and Mikhail Lermontov 117

5 Service Ranks in Dostoevsky's Life and Fiction 146.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780299308308

0299308308

OCLC:

927104231