Bowdoin Books

Books by Bowdoin Faculty and Alumni

  • Home
  • Bowdoin Faculty Books
  • Bowdoin Alumni Books
You are here: Home / Library / Taboo Pushkin: Topics, Texts, Interpretations

Taboo Pushkin: Topics, Texts, Interpretations

By Alyssa Dinega Gillespie

Taboo Pushkin: Topics, Texts, Interpretations
  • Publisher: The University of Wisconsin Press
  • Available in: Paperback, eBook
  • ISBN: 978-0-299-28704-7
  • Published: July 1, 2012
The University of Wisconsin Press

Edited by Alyssa Dinega Gillespie

Since his death in 1837, Alexander Pushkin—often called the “father of Russian literature”—has become a timeless embodiment of Russian national identity, adopted for diverse ideological purposes and reinvented anew as a cultural icon in each historical era (tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet). His elevation to mythic status, however, has led to the celebration of some of his writings and the shunning of others. Throughout the history of Pushkin studies, certain topics, texts, and interpretations have remained officially off-limits in Russia—taboos as prevalent in today’s Russia as ever before.

The essays in this bold and authoritative volume use new approaches, overlooked archival materials, and fresh interpretations to investigate aspects of Pushkin’s biography and artistic legacy that have previously been suppressed or neglected. Taken together, the contributors strive to create a more fully realized Pushkin and demonstrate how potent a challenge the unofficial, taboo, alternative Pushkin has proven to be across the centuries for the Russian literary and political establishments.

Reviews

“There is truly a need for an ‘other Pushkiniana,’ a volume that seeks to push Pushkin studies to the borders of subjects that have been off-limits for many Pushkinists.”
—Angela Brintlinger, author of Writing a Usable Past: Russian Literary Culture, 1917–1937

“This book impressively unites essays on diverse topics by authors with various methodologies for the singular purpose of unveiling and challenging ‘ the Pushkin myth.’ ”
—Slavonica

“An important contribution to our understanding of Pushkin’s life, personality, and work, as well as to the ongoing uses and abuses of these topics in contemporary Russia. . . . [An] almost gargantuan feast.”
—Slavonic and East European Review


Series: Bowdoin Faculty Tagged with: 2012, Russian

By Department

Africana Studies
Art History
Asian Studies
Biology
Cinema Studies
Classics
Digital and Computational Studies
Economics
Education
English
Environmental Studies
Francophone Studies
Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies
German

Government and Legal Studies
History
Hispanic Studies
Latin American Studies
Mathematics
Music
Neuroscience
Philosophy
Physics and Astronomy
Psychology
Religion
Romance Languages and Literatures
Russian
Sociology and Anthropology
Theater and Dance
Visual Arts

Submit a Book

Let us know about a Bowdoin Book we might have missed >


Bowdoin College