Models of Personal Conversion in Russian Cultural History of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Herlth, Jens (EDT); Zehnder, Christian (EDT)

ISBN 10: 3034315961 / ISBN 13: 9783034315968

Published by Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2015

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 24685588-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Models of Personal Conversion in Russian Cultural History of the 19th and 20th Centuries
• Publisher: Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3034315961
• ISBN 13: 9783034315968
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This volume offers a view of modern Russian intellectual culture as shaped by the dynamic of conversions. The individual contributions examine a rich variety of personal conversions occurring in a culture in which the written word enjoyed a privileged status and, historically, was closely linked to the sacred. However, the essays presented go beyond the original meaning of conversion as a change of religious beliefs. They address shifts in style, aesthetic outlooks, and mindsets, political and ideological transfigurations as well as religious conversions in the true sense of the term.
Whether at the level of culture, society or biography, the study of conversions opens the way to profound reflections about questions of identity, cultural ruptures, and continuity. The awareness of former conversions and the possible «convertibility» of one’s own ideological, spiritual or social stance has been among the central traits of Russian intellectual culture during the last two centuries.

About the Author

Jens Herlth is Professor of Slavic Literatures at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).
Christian Zehnder is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).