The Imperial Script of Catherine the Great : : Governing with the Literary Pen / / Vera Proskurina.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Academic Studies Press Complete eBook-Package 2023
• VerfasserIn: Proskurina, Vera,
• Place / Publishing House: Boston, MA : : Academic Studies Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Ars Rossica
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (220 p.)

Empress Catherine II produced a body of written material so vast and diverse that it seems impossible to provide a general characterization of the works contained in the authoritative twelve-volume collection assembled by A. N. Pypin from handwritten source material. This book does not attempt an all-embracing review of Catherine’s entire literary output, which consists of works in multiple genres and languages. The Russian empress’s writings have been the repeated subject of serious analysis for nineteenth- and twentieth-century researchers; all of these in one way or another demonstrate that across a variety of genres and formats, with a greater or lesser degree of independence and originality, the literary works of Catherine II always express her politics and ideology. These texts were carefully prepared, their publications and stage productions executed magnificently. As a rule, the most significant works were translated into French, German, and, in some cases, English. European readers, as well as the Russian public, were expected to be attentive witnesses to, and happy consumers of, the monarch’s compositions. Amongst rulers, the literary productivity of the Russian empress has no analogue in history. This volume is the first study in English of the vast literary output of Catherine the Great.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 The Landscape of the Empire: The Antidote of Catherine II, or the Borders of European Civilization -- 2 Barbaric Capital: Laughter during the Plague -- 3 The Poetics of Prototypes: Political Contexts of the Fairy Tales of Catherine II -- 4 Territory of Freedom: Dispute by the Palace Walls -- 5 “Light from the East”: Catherine II in a Fight against Freemasonry -- 6 Catherine’s Imperial Stride: The Greek Project on the Theatrical Scene -- Bibliography -- Index