Russia! What Do You Want of Me
The Russian Reading Public inDeadSouls
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4205207 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anne Lounsbery (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 367-389 |
| Publication date | 2001-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Slavic Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-6779 • E-ISSN: 2325-7784 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2697275 |
| OpenAlex | W2327442853 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
This article analyzes the role of Russia's changing readership and incipient print culture inDead Souls. Though Nikolai Gogol' was received in salon society, his primary allegiance was to print and the broad (and thus unsophisticated) readership that was beginning to buy and read printed texts. Like other of Gogol"s works ("On the Development of Periodical Literature in 1834 and 1835," "The Portrait"),Dead Soulsreflects the author's awareness of the severe limitations of this audience, especially their desire for conventional plot devices and their eagerness for characters with whom to identify. AlthoughDead Soulsinvites readers' participation, it also reflects Gogol"s growing skepticism about inexperienced readers' attempts to create meaning, his disdain for their judgment, and his desire to assert total control over the meaning of his art. Lounsbery considersDead Souls' reception and situates Gogol"s work in the context of the appearance ofLibrary for Readingin 1834 and other writers' approaches to the problem of Russia's reading public (notably Faddei Bulgarin and Osip Senkovskii
Aesthetics · Allegiance · Art · Art history · Audience measurement · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Literature · Meaning (existential · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Portrait · Reading (process · Russian literature · Skepticism · Sociology · European Cultural and National Identity · History · Law · Philosophy · Russian Literature and Bakhtin Studies · Themes in Literature Analysis
| Highly cited | No |
|---|