The French Language in Russia : : A Social, Political, Cultural, and Literary History / / Derek Offord, Vladislav Rjéoutski, Gesine Argent.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter AUP eBook Package 2016-2018
• VerfasserIn: Offord, Derek,; Argent, Gesine,; Rjéoutski, Vladislav,
• TeilnehmendeR: Argent, Gesine,; Rjéoutski, Vladislav,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2018]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: Languages and culture in history
• Physical Description: 1 online resource :; 15 halftones

-- With support from the Deutsches Historisches Institut Moskau --This work provides an account both of the functions of the French language in pre-revolutionary Russia and of the debates that Russians' use of French occasioned. The first volume surveys the use of French in many social settings and in administration and ends with a discussion of the ways in which language practice impinged on conceptions of national and social identity. The second volume examines the use of French for various literary purposes and then considers the treatment of Franco-Russian bilingualism in Russian literature and thought. The work challenges some pervasive assumptions about the language practice of the Russian nobility and calls into question the predominantly negative view of the effects of bilingualism that informs much Russian imaginative literature and some influential scholarship. At the same time it keeps in mind the fact that elite francophonie was a more or less pan-European phenomenon in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Presentation of dates, transliteration, and other editorial practices -- Abbreviations used in the notes -- The Romanovs -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: The historical contexts of Russian francophonie -- Chapter 2: Teaching and learning French -- Chapter 3: French at court -- Chapter 4: French in high society -- Chapter 5: French in diplomacy and other official domains -- Chapter 6: Writing French -- Chapter 7: French for cultural propaganda and political polemics -- Chapter 8: Language attitudes -- Chapter 9: Perceptions of bilingualism in the classical Russian novel -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index