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Metamorphoses in Russian Modernism
- Source :
- The Slavic and East European Journal. 46:593
- Publication Year :
- 2002
- Publisher :
- JSTOR, 2002.
-
Abstract
- Modern Russia has been shaped by Peter the Great's sudden attempt to transform it into a European country. Since shapeshifting and identity are so closely linked in Russian history, the same theme of metamorphosis is prevalent in Russian literature and is examined here as a Russian theme, structuring principle and source of artistic identity. Barta examines the magical transformations depicted in the ancient classics and in the oral epic heritage resonate in Russian literature and film at the fin de siecle and the early decades of the twentieth century - a period of dynamic change in Russian culture. Two hundred years after Peter's forceful westernization and facing its second crucial transformation in 1917, Russia witnessed the decay of classic realism and positivism and the rise of irrational philosophies, psychoanalysis, artistic experimentation, Marxism, as well as the birth of the new genre of film. Metamorphosis is examined in the works of prominent representatives of the divided Russian intelligentsia: the Symbolists; the most famous emigre writer, Nabokov; Olesha, the `fellow traveller' attempting to find his place in the Soviet state; the enthuiastic poet of the Bolshevik movement, Mayakovski; and finally, the great Russian film director, Sergei Eisenstein.
- Subjects :
- Cultural Studies
Literature
Linguistics and Language
Russian culture
Literature and Literary Theory
business.industry
media_common.quotation_subject
Émigré
Art history
Modernism
Russian literature
Art
Language and Linguistics
Intelligentsia
Film director
business
Realism
media_common
Westernization
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00376752
- Volume :
- 46
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Slavic and East European Journal
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........907403744065878e237d8be9a085b158
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.2307/3220206