Description
Book SynopsisThe present volume has as its primary aim readings, from a feminist perspective, of a number of works from Russian literature published over the period in which the ‘woman question’ rose to the fore and reached its peak. All the works considered here were produced in, or hark back to, a fairly narrowly defined period of not quite 20 years (1846-1864) in which issues of gender, of male and female roles were discussed much more keenly than in perhaps any other period in Russian literature. The overall project is summed up by the three key words of this book’s title, narrative, space and gender, and, especially, the interconnections between them. That is, what do the way these stories were told tell us about gender identities in mid-nineteenth-century Russia? Which spaces were central to these fictional worlds? Which spaces suggested which gender identities? The discussions therefore focus on issues of narrative and space, and how they acted as ‘technologies of gender’. This volume will be of interest to all interested in nineteenth-century Russian literature, as well as students of gender, and of the semiotics of narrative space.
Trade Review"… clearly the product of careful research, sustained thought and an admirable ability to apply the theoretical ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin…" – in: SEER 87/1 (January 2009) "…a series of essays that are both insightful and stimulating. This volume will make a useful addition to the existing body of work exploring narrative and gender issues in nineteenth-century Russian literature." – in: Slavic and East European Journal
Table of ContentsIntroduction The Seduction of the Daughter: Sexuality in the Early Dostoevskii and the Case of Poor Folk ‘Same Time, Same Place’: Chronotope and Gender in Dostoevskii’s White Nights The Matriarchal World in Nadezhda Sokhanskaia’s A Conversation After Dinner ‘There’s no place like home’: Narrative, Space and Gender in Family Happiness ‘A Room of One’s Own’, Part I: Narrative, Space and Gender in The Boarding-School Girl A Sense of Place: Narrative, Space and Gender in Notes from the Underground ‘A Room of One’s Own’, Part II: Narrative, Gender and Space in The Fiancée Bibliography Index
