English Literature and the Russian Aesthetic Renaissance

This 1998 book is a study of the Russian reception of English literature from Romanticism to aestheticism.

Rachel Polonsky (Author)

9780521027472, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2006

268 pages, 9 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.41 kg

"...stimulating book...Polonsky has provided one of the most stimulating surveys of the 'aesthetic renaissance' overall." Canadian Slavonic Papers

The turn of the nineteenth century, a time of exceptional creativity in Russia, was also a time of great receptivity to foreign cultural influences. Among the most important of these were English poetry and aesthetic thought, which gave new impetus to the Russian imagination. This 1998 book is a study of the Russian reception of English literature from Romanticism to aestheticism, focusing particularly on the reception by Russian poets of Shelley, Ruskin, Pater, Frazer and Wilde. Framing this account is a pioneering exploration of the intellectual background to these influences in comparative scholarship, illuminating a common interest in myth, folklore, anthropology, and the origins of language. This book discusses the relationship between Russian conceptions of national identity, literary influence and the origins of comparative literary history.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Notes on the text
Introduction
1. Museum people
Part I. The Barbaric Renaissance: 2. Rites of spring
3. Balmont's Shelley and the sacred books of the East
4. Edgar Allan Poe and the magic of words
Part II. The Aesthetic Renaissance: 5. The renaissance of the renaissance
6. English Aestheticism and Blok's apocalypse
7. How important it is to be serious: Oscar Wilde's popularity
8. Kuzmin's English style
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]