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New Women’s Writing in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe: Gender, Generation and Identities
Editor: Rosalind Marsh and Olga Tabachnikova
Date Of Publication: Jun 2011
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-2922-9
Isbn: 1-4438-2922-6
Since the late 1980s, there has been an explosion of women’s writing in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe greater than in any other cultural period. This book, which contains contributions by scholars and writers from many different countries, aims to address the gap in literature and debate that exists in relation to this subject.

We investigate why women’s writing has become so prominent in post-socialist countries, and enquire whether writers regard their gender as a burden, or, on the contrary, as empowering. Legacies and comparisons between different generations of women writers are examined in order to assess how far contemporary authors accept or contest traditional views and images of femininity and masculinity still prevalent in their cultures.

We explore the relationship in contemporary women’s writing between gender, class, and nationality, as well as issues of ethnicity and post-colonialism, widely discussed in Western feminism. The emergence of openly erotic and lesbian writing is also discussed.

This volume suggests that, even though they rarely use the label ‘feminist’, some contemporary women writers seek to challenge such long-standing cultural stereotypes as the beautiful, morally strong, but non-intellectual woman, the caring mother, the saintly prostitute, or the mother as symbol of the nation.

Rosalind Marsh is Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Bath, and former President of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies. She has edited three books on Russian women’s writing and gender studies: Women in Russia and Ukraine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Gender and Russian Literature: new perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), and Women in Russian Culture: projections and self-perceptions (Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 1998); and is the co-editor (with Anna Bull and Hanna Diamond) of Feminisms and Women’s Movements in Contemporary Europe (London: Macmillan, 2000).

Olga Tabachnikova holds a PhD in Mathematics and a PhD in Russian Literature and Philosophy. She has worked as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Russian Department of the University of Bristol and as a Research Officer and a Lecturer in Russian Cultural Studies at the University of Bath. Her recent publications include 'Anton Chekhov through the eyes of Russian thinkers: Vasilii Rozanov, Dmitrii Merezhkovsky and Lev Shestov' (editor, Anthem Press, 2010), 'Russian Jewish Diaspora and European Culture (1917-1937)' (co-edited with Peter Wagstaff and Jorg Schulte, BRILL, to appear shortly) and a forthcoming monograph 'Philosophy as Poetry, or Don Quixote?s pilgrimage through Russian Literature: Lev Shestov from a Literary Perspective' (Anthem Press). She has also published a book of poetry and written widely on modern Russian culture, with a focus on cultural continuity, identity and gender studies.

“An impressive volume. This book is indispensible reading for all those seriously interested in the politics and culture of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. Rosalind Marsh's lengthy Introduction to these wide-ranging and perceptive essays is marked by lucidity and balance in areas that often privilege polemics over scholarship.”

—Professor Robert Porter, Emeritus Professor of Slavonic Studies, University of Glasgow (an expert in modern and contemporary Russian and Czech literature)

« This hugely impressive book will be essential reading for anyone seriously interested in contemporary women’s literature in Russia and Eastern Europe. Bringing together a number of leading scholars from the UK, the US, Russia and elsewhere, it features both comprehensive surveys of women’s writing and incisive studies of individual authors. The introduction is especially welcome, as it contains an invaluable overview of scholarly work in the field. The book’s appeal is further enhanced by the fascinating contributions which it contains from writers themselves. Scholarly and yet accessible, New Women’s Writing in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe will be of particular interest to students of Slavic studies, gender studies and comparative literature. »

— Dr Graham Roberts, the Sorbonne

Price Uk Gbp: 64.99
Price Us Usd: 97.99

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