Description
Book SynopsisIt is human nature to want to fit in. The lengths people have gone to do so have provided creative minds with material for centuries. This book explores the consequences of being marked an outsider in the Russian-speaking world through a close study of several seminal works of Russian literature. The author combines the fields of literary studies, linguistics, and sociology to illuminate what prompted Christof Ruhl, an economist at the World Bank, to comment, about Russia, “On a very broad scale, it’s a country where people care about their family and friends. Their clan. But not their society.”
Trade Review“Don’t be a Stranger is an important and extremely relevant contribution to Russian literary studies. While the book focuses on two literary works, Galie also reflects on the relevance of ‘свой-чужой’ to contemporary Russian society more broadly, and on the ways in which leading figures of the Putin regime and media have utilized their pejorative associations. Indeed, scholars of ethnicity, gender and sexuality studies in Russia will find this book particularly useful and stimulating in the broad discussion surrounding identity and belonging in Putin’s Russia.”
— Thomas Reid, University of St. Andrews, Forum For Modern Language Studies
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Note on Transliteration
Introduction: Fitting in Russian Style
1. The Crux of the Svoj/Chuzhoj Opposition
2. Making Svoj/Chuzhoj Divisive in Alexander Griboedov’s “Woe from Wit”
3. “Woe from Wit” as Social Gospel
4. The Demons are Social
Demons
The Setting
The Plot
The Audience and the Stage
The Opposition
Verkhovensky
A Stranger’s Sins
The First Argument
The Second Argument
The Duel
At Our People’s
The Murder of Shatov
In Place of a Conclusion
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
