‘He thinks he is inspired, and he is mad’
Superstition, Fanaticism, and Deceitful Folly in Catherine II’s Comedy The Siberian Shaman
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21750520 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Piotr Sobkowiak (0000-0002-7536-9684, University of Bern, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 90-133 |
| Publication date | 2023-06-22 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Aries (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1567-9896 • E-ISSN: 1570-0593 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/15700593-tat00003 |
| OpenAlex | W4381739317 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
During the last decades of the eighteenth century, knowledge about Siberia inspired Catherine II to create the main character of one of her comedies, The Siberian Shaman . Taking Foucault’s dispositif -concept as its theoretical premise, the present paper discusses the historical context in which The Siberian Shaman was written, deconstructs the identity of the comedy’s main character, and explores the socio-political purposes for which the comedy was written. By utilising the perspective of entangled history of religions and the methodology of historical discourse analysis, this paper shows that the comedy’s alleged “shamanic” content and “anti-shamanic” purpose cannot be taken for granted. Rather, the discourse in The Siberian Shaman should be read as Catherine II ’s own engagement with the themes of unreason and madness within the philosophical, socio-political and religious context of the period
Aesthetics · Art · Comedy · Epistemology · History of religions · Intellectual history · Literature · Political science · Politics · Premise · Shamanism · Sociology · Visual arts · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |