Description
Book SynopsisIn January 1829, an angry mob in Tehran murdered Russian poet and diplomat Alexander Griboedov, author of the verse comedy Woe from Wit and architect of the Russian annexation of the north Caucasus from Persia after the Russo-Persian War. A century later, the Russian formalist writer Yury Tynianov wrote a historical novel about the event entitled The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar.
In this wide-ranging study, Anna Aydinyan posits that The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar conceptualizes Orientalism fifty years before Edward Said coined the term. She argues that Tynianov parodied historical works on the Caucasus in his novel in order to critique the ways in which exoticizing the East enabled imperialism and colonization. Analysing literary and non-literary texts on Russia’s relationship with Iran, along with the economic and cultural development of Transcaucasia after the Russo-Persian War, Formalists against Imperialism studies Russian culture within the frame
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments A Note on Translations and Transliteration Introduction 1. Colonial Management of Transcaucasia and the Ideas of the European Enlightenment 2. The “Oriental Journeys” in The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar 3. A Novelistic Outline of Orientalism 4. “The Fountain of Bakhchisaray”: The Harem of the Russian Empire 5. Infant Asia and Stenka Razin: Persia in the Works of the Soviet Avant-Garde 6. The “Treacherous Eunuch” in Pursuit of Freedom: Search for Authenticity in the Works of Montesquieu and Tynianov 7. Facing the Future and Confronting the Former Self: An Iranian Delegation’s Visit to Petersburg in 1829 and Its Interpretation in 1929 8. Knowledge Is Power: The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar as a Parody of a Spy Novel Conclusion: Tynianov’s Anti-imperialist Legacy and the 2010 Television Adaptation of His Novel Notes Bibliography Index
