Optical Play: Glass, Vision, and Spectacle in Russian Culture (Studies in Russian Literature and Theory) - Hardcover

Chadaga, Julia Bekman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810130033 ISBN 13: 9780810130036

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Julia Bekman Chadaga’s ambitious study posits that glass - in its uses as a material and as captured in culture - is a key to understanding the evolution of Russian identity from the eighteenth century onward. From the contemporary perspective, it is easy to overlook how glass has profoundly transformed vision. Chadaga shows the far-reaching effects of this phenomenon. Her book examines the similarities between glass and language, the ideological uses of glass, and the material’s associations with modernity, while illuminating the work of Lomonosov, Dostoevsky, Zamyatin, and Eisenstein, among others. In particular, Chadaga explores the prominent role of glass in the discourse around Russia’s contentious relationship with the West - by turns admiring and antagonistic - as the nation crafted a vision for its own future. Chadaga returns throughout to the spectacular aspect of glass and shows how both the tendentious capacity and the playfulness of this material have shaped Russian culture.

About this title

About the Author

Julia Bekman Chadaga is an assistant professor of Russian at Macalester College in Minnesota, USA.

Edition details

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810130033
• ISBN 13: 9780810130036
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300