Formalists against Imperialism : : ‹em›The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar‹/em› and Russian Orientalism / / Anna Aydinyan.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022 English
• VerfasserIn: Aydinyan, Anna,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.)

In January 1829, an angry mob in Tehran murdered Russian poet and diplomat Alexander Griboedov, author of the verse comedy Woe from Wit and architect of the Russian annexation of the north Caucasus from Persia after the Russo-Persian War. A century later, the Russian formalist writer Yury Tynianov wrote a historical novel about the event entitled The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar. In this wide-ranging study, Anna Aydinyan posits that The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar conceptualizes Orientalism fifty years before Edward Said coined the term. She argues that Tynianov parodied historical works on the Caucasus in his novel in order to critique the ways in which exoticizing the East enabled imperialism and colonization. Analysing literary and non-literary texts on Russia’s relationship with Iran, along with the economic and cultural development of Transcaucasia after the Russo-Persian War, Formalists against Imperialism studies Russian culture within the framework of comparative colonialisms and examines the twentieth-century Russian reconsideration of the country’s imperial past.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Translations and Transliteration -- Introduction -- Chapter One. Colonial Management of Transcaucasia and the Ideas of the European Enlightenment -- Chapter Two. The “Oriental Journeys” in The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar -- Chapter Three. A Novelistic Outline of Orientalism -- Chapter Four. “The Fountain of Bakhchisaray”: The Harem of the Russian Empire -- Chapter Five. Infant Asia and Stenka Razin: Persia in the Works of the Soviet Avant-Garde -- Chapter Six. The “Treacherous Eunuch”: Search for Authenticity -- Chapter Seven. An Iranian Delegation’s Visit to Petersburg in 1829 and Its Interpretation in 1929 -- Chapter Eight. The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar as a Parody of a Spy Novel -- In Lieu of a Conclusion: Tynianov’s Anti-imperialist Legacy and the 2010 Television Adaptation of His Novel -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index