A History of Women's Writing in Russia

A History of Women's Writing in Russia offers a comprehensive account of the lives and works of Russia's women writers. Based on original and archival research, this volume forces a re-examination of many of the traditionally held assumptions about Russian literature and women's role in the tradition. In setting about the process of reintegrating women writers into the history of Russian literature, contributors have addressed the often surprising contexts within which women's writing has been produced. Chapters reveal a flourishing literary tradition where none was thought to exist. They redraw the map defining Russia's literary periods, they look at how Russia's women writers articulated their own experience, and they reassess their relationship to the dominant male tradition. The volume is supported by extensive reference features including a bibliography and guide to writers and their works.

Introduction Adele Barker and Jehanne M Gheith; 1. Women's image in Russian medieval literature Rosalind McKenzie; 2. Sappho, Corinna and Niobe: genres and personae in Russian women's writing, 1760-1820 Catriona Kelly; 3. The inexperienced muse: Russian women and poetry in the first half of the nineteenth century Judith Vowles; 4. Women of the 1830s and 1850s: alternative periods Jehanne Gheith; 5. 'A particle of ourself': pre-Revolutionary autobiography by Russian women writers Mary Zirin; 6. The women of Russian Montparnasse, Paris, 1920-1940 Catherine Ciepiela; 7. Women in Russian symbolism: beyond the albegra of love Jenifer Presto; 8. The Eastern path of exile: Russian women's writing in China Olga Bakich and Carol Ueland; 9. Realist prose writers, 1881-1929 Rosalind Marsh; 10. Women and gender in post-symbolist poetry and the Stalin era Katherine Hodgson; 11. Writing the female body politic (1945-1985) Beth Holmgren; 12. In their own words: Soviet women writers and the search for self Anna Krylova; 13. Women's poetry since the sixties Stephanie Sandler; 14. The persistence of memory: women's prose since the sixties Adele Barker; 15. Perestroika and post Soviet prose: from dazzle to dispersal Helena Goscilo.