Optical Play: Glass, Vision, and Spectacle in Russian Culture (Studies in Russian Literature and Theory)

Chadaga, Julia Bekman; Morson, Gary Saul [Editor]

ISBN 10: 0810130033 / ISBN 13: 9780810130036

Published by Northwestern University Press, 2014

About this Item

NEAR FINE, Like New. Light brown and red pictorial boards, no jacket, bagged for protection. Once Read Books, cover scan available - just ask, OnceReadBooks com Orders shipped via USPS.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Optical Play: Glass, Vision, and Spectacle in Russian Culture (Studies in Russian Literature and Theory)
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810130033
• ISBN 13: 9780810130036
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Near Fine.
• Weight: 20 ounces
• Seller catalogs:
  • Russia

About this title

Synopsis

Longlist finalist, 2015 Historia Nova Prize for Best Book on Russian Intellectual and Cultural History 

Julia Bekman Chadaga’s ambitious study posits that glass—in its uses as a material and as captured in culture—is a key to understanding the evolution of Russian identity from the eighteenth century onward. From the contemporary perspective, it is easy to overlook how glass has profoundly transformed vision. Chadaga shows the far-reaching effects of this phenomenon.

Her book examines the similarities between glass and language, the ideological uses of glass, and the material’s associations with modernity, while illuminating the work of Lomonosov, Dostoevsky, Zamyatin, and Eisenstein, among others. In particular, Chadaga explores the prominent role of glass in the discourse around Russia’s contentious relationship with the West—by turns admiring and antagonistic—as the nation crafted a vision for its own future. Chadaga returns throughout to the spectacular aspect of glass and shows how both the tendentious capacity and the playfulness of this material have shaped Russian culture.

About the Author

Julia Bekman Chadaga is a assistant professor of Russian at Macalester College.