Alexey Vdovin
Biographic Data
| ID | 1102037 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alexey Vdovin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alexey |
| FAMILY NAME | Vdovin |
| SIGNATURE | VDOVIN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | National Research University Higher School of Economics |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0800-0577 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Realism of Affects
This article explores the interaction between the Realist literary style and contemporary scientific discourse in Ivan Turgenev’s novella King Lear of the Steppes (1870). Drawing on recent research on the intersections between Realism and modern scientific knowledge, the analysis focuses on the influence of 1860s physiological psychology and affect theory – fields that, as the article argues, were of particular interest to Turgenev. Through a clo…
The Natural School and Realism
This chapter outlines the history of Russian Realism against a European backdrop. In the Russian Empire, as in Europe, there were no influential aesthetic manifestos predating the rise of Realist literature. Although the first seeds of the movement can be seen in the work of Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, and the critic Vissarion Belinskii, this chapter considers the dominant period of Russian Realism to be the period from 1…
The New Cambridge History of Russian Literature
This is the essential new guide to Russian literature, combining authority and innovation in coverage ranging from medieval manuscripts to the internet and social media. With contributions from thirty-four world-leading scholars, it offers a fresh approach to literary history, not as one integral narrative but as multiple parallel histories. Each of its four strands tells a story of Russian literature according to a defined criterion: Movements, …
The Peasant
The peasant as a protagonist in Russian literature emerged in the late eighteenth century in comic operas and Nikolai Karamzin’s short fiction. By the 1850s, the genre of ‘stories from the life of peasants’ had become widespread, and included the depiction of Ukrainian peasants. Its popularity hinged on the fact that peasant ‘other’ came to serve as an idealised image of national character. This chapter focuses in most detail on the period betwee…
How “Thick” Journal Changed the Titles of Russian Novels
Using a dataset of 2,036 titles of Russian novels from 1763 to 1917, the article raises the issue of average title length evolution over 150 years of the history of original novels. Unlike British novels, in which, according to Franco Moretti’s hypothesis, the titles became shorter due to market competition, the titles of Russian novels from the 1840s onwards became shorter primarily due to the influence of the ‘thick journals’ as a particular cu…
The Nationalization of Patriotism in Russian Literature during the Crimean War
This article explores the issue of Russian imperial nationalism in the early phase of its formation, namely the nationalization of patriotism in literature during the Crimean War, 1853–56. Using historical studies and theories of nationalism, the author shows how and why an acute discourse of a nationalistic experience of community uniting the elite with the common people arose in St. Petersburg society, theater, and literature. Drawing on many p…
Peasant Speech in Ivan Turgenev’s “A Sportsman’s Sketches” and Russian Fiction Before the Emancipation
The article focuses on the representation of peasant speech in short stories from peasant life published before the abolition of serfdom in 1861. The author shows that throughout the entire period, writers gradually increased the ratio of dialect («regional») words in the speech of peasant characters. The culmination of this trend came in the mid-1850s and correlated, on the one hand, with the rapid development of ethnographic and dialectological…
First Love Is Exactly Like Revolution
This article tackles the allegorical mode of Russian realism using Ivan Turgenev's novella Spring Torrents (1872) and its political implications as a case study. We argue that this deeply intimate story of love and moral fall can be read in the context of the "social imaginary" which, in Turgenev's manner, is wrapped in motives and symbols correlating to "revolutionary" and "reactionary" discourses. The article shows how this projection emerges i…
Contemporary Russian Literature in Reading Anthologies (1843–1904) and the Literary Canon
This article studies the quantitative and qualitative status and cultural functions of modern literature in 46 Russian reading anthologies designed for two major types of high schools (“gymnasia” and “nonclassical secondary schools”) from 1843 to 1904. Such analysis is relevant due to an outdated understanding of the importance of Minister Dmitrii Tolstoy’s conservative reforms between the 1870s and 1880s. Using genealogical, institutional, and h…
Devilish Money” and Peasant Ethics
The article investigates how Leo Tolstoy’s economic ideas are embodied and instantiated in the plot of his short story “Polikushka” (1863) from the two intertwined perspectives of narratology and the history of economic ideas. The various names given to the sum of money the protagonist, Polikei, loses can be explained by the ruble’s “dual exchange rate”; that is, the differential rates between the silver ruble and assignation ruble (1:3.5) which …
No prominent works on this page.
Devilish Money” and Peasant Ethics
The article investigates how Leo Tolstoy’s economic ideas are embodied and instantiated in the plot of his short story “Polikushka” (1863) from the two intertwined perspectives of narratology and the history of economic ideas. The various names given to the sum of money the protagonist, Polikei, loses can be explained by the ruble’s “dual exchange rate”; that is, the differential rates between the silver ruble and assignation ruble (1:3.5) which …
Contemporary Russian Literature in Reading Anthologies (1843–1904) and the Literary Canon
This article studies the quantitative and qualitative status and cultural functions of modern literature in 46 Russian reading anthologies designed for two major types of high schools (“gymnasia” and “nonclassical secondary schools”) from 1843 to 1904. Such analysis is relevant due to an outdated understanding of the importance of Minister Dmitrii Tolstoy’s conservative reforms between the 1870s and 1880s. Using genealogical, institutional, and h…
First Love Is Exactly Like Revolution
This article tackles the allegorical mode of Russian realism using Ivan Turgenev's novella Spring Torrents (1872) and its political implications as a case study. We argue that this deeply intimate story of love and moral fall can be read in the context of the "social imaginary" which, in Turgenev's manner, is wrapped in motives and symbols correlating to "revolutionary" and "reactionary" discourses. The article shows how this projection emerges i…
Peasant Speech in Ivan Turgenev’s “A Sportsman’s Sketches” and Russian Fiction Before the Emancipation
The article focuses on the representation of peasant speech in short stories from peasant life published before the abolition of serfdom in 1861. The author shows that throughout the entire period, writers gradually increased the ratio of dialect («regional») words in the speech of peasant characters. The culmination of this trend came in the mid-1850s and correlated, on the one hand, with the rapid development of ethnographic and dialectological…
How “Thick” Journal Changed the Titles of Russian Novels
Using a dataset of 2,036 titles of Russian novels from 1763 to 1917, the article raises the issue of average title length evolution over 150 years of the history of original novels. Unlike British novels, in which, according to Franco Moretti’s hypothesis, the titles became shorter due to market competition, the titles of Russian novels from the 1840s onwards became shorter primarily due to the influence of the ‘thick journals’ as a particular cu…
The Nationalization of Patriotism in Russian Literature during the Crimean War
This article explores the issue of Russian imperial nationalism in the early phase of its formation, namely the nationalization of patriotism in literature during the Crimean War, 1853–56. Using historical studies and theories of nationalism, the author shows how and why an acute discourse of a nationalistic experience of community uniting the elite with the common people arose in St. Petersburg society, theater, and literature. Drawing on many p…
The Natural School and Realism
This chapter outlines the history of Russian Realism against a European backdrop. In the Russian Empire, as in Europe, there were no influential aesthetic manifestos predating the rise of Realist literature. Although the first seeds of the movement can be seen in the work of Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, and the critic Vissarion Belinskii, this chapter considers the dominant period of Russian Realism to be the period from 1…
The New Cambridge History of Russian Literature
This is the essential new guide to Russian literature, combining authority and innovation in coverage ranging from medieval manuscripts to the internet and social media. With contributions from thirty-four world-leading scholars, it offers a fresh approach to literary history, not as one integral narrative but as multiple parallel histories. Each of its four strands tells a story of Russian literature according to a defined criterion: Movements, …
The Peasant
The peasant as a protagonist in Russian literature emerged in the late eighteenth century in comic operas and Nikolai Karamzin’s short fiction. By the 1850s, the genre of ‘stories from the life of peasants’ had become widespread, and included the depiction of Ukrainian peasants. Its popularity hinged on the fact that peasant ‘other’ came to serve as an idealised image of national character. This chapter focuses in most detail on the period betwee…
Realism of Affects
This article explores the interaction between the Realist literary style and contemporary scientific discourse in Ivan Turgenev’s novella King Lear of the Steppes (1870). Drawing on recent research on the intersections between Realism and modern scientific knowledge, the analysis focuses on the influence of 1860s physiological psychology and affect theory – fields that, as the article argues, were of particular interest to Turgenev. Through a clo…
Art (6 works) · History (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Literature (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Politics (4 works) · Elite (3 works) · Law (3 works)