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Russia: the 1880s

Russia: the 1880s. A generational change. 1880 Pushkin Monument. Speeches by Dostoevsky, Turgenev The myth of Russian literature, with Pushkin as its foundation, takes shape Pushkin is seen as “narodnyi” – national poet, creator of the Russian literary language.

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Russia: the 1880s

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  1. Russia: the 1880s A generational change

  2. 1880 Pushkin Monument • Speeches by Dostoevsky, Turgenev • The myth of Russian literature, with Pushkin as its foundation, takes shape • Pushkin is seen as “narodnyi” – national poet, creator of the Russian literary language

  3. 9 February 1881 Dostoevsky dies…

  4. Ivan Turgenev… … dies at Bougival outside Paris 3 September 1883

  5. Turgenev’s remains transported to Russia…buried at the Volkov Cemetery in St Petersburg

  6. Of the great novelists, only Tolstoy remains • Tolstoy goes through religious crisis, renounces his early writings • Espouses a radical Christianity based on poverty, non-violence, anarchy (Painting 1887 by Ilya Repin)

  7. Repression • Age darkened by the assassination of Alexander II in 1881 • Police state strengthened, trials of suspects • Pogroms break out in the areas of Jewish settlement • Education system changed to emphasize classical studies rather than natural sciences • Repin: “They did not expect him” (1884)

  8. Intellectual shifts: after positivism • Turning away from the optimism and belief in progress of the previous age • Radical socialist ideas: terror or communism, strikes • Pessimism promoted by Schopenhauer’s philosophy, interest in Buddhism, abnegation of will • beginning of the ennui of the turn of the century

  9. Deep divisions • The intellectual world becomes divided as the industrial age reaches its peak • Naturalism: harsh leftist vision of the sufferings of people in the industrial age: prose • Art for art’s sake: a new aestheticism, themes from ancient Greece, symbolism, belief in a transcendent world, mysticism: poetry

  10. Changes in the social landscape: the new reader • Accelerated urbanization and industrialization of Russia • Greater literacy • Need for doctors, engineers, educators • New, classless reader • Cheap mass-produced magazines and journals catered to lower-class tastes • The short form comes to the fore: the short story, anecdote, sketch

  11. Vsevolod Garshin (1855-88) • Father committed suicide in front of him when he was 7 • Fought in the Russo-Turkish war (1877-1878) • Suffered from mental illness, committed suicide

  12. Garshin’s work • Left a collection of short stories • Focusses on the inner life of the individual under extreme stress, the subconscious world • Highly compressed stories with a grimly ironic twist • “Red Flower” – about a madman who believes the evil of the world is concentrated in three red poppies growing in the mental hospital garden; he contrives to defeat his wardens and destroy them and dies in a bout of nervous exhaustion

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