RUSS 263-01/HCST 263-01:
Orientalism and Empire: Russia's Literary South

Resources

(This page is a work in progress and we will add to it as the semester progresses)

SELECTED BOOKS AND ARTICLES:

Historical background on Russia and the Caucasus

• Brower Daniel and Edward J. Lazzerini, eds., Russia's Orient. Imperial Borderlans and Peoples, 1700-1917, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1997.
• Hunczak, Taras, ed., Russian Imperialism. From Ivan the Great to the Revolution,New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers UP, 1974.
• Raeff, M., Imperial Russia 1682-1825. The Coming of Age of Modern Russia. NY, Knopf, 1971.
• Broxup, Marie Bennigsen, ed.,The North Caucasus Barrier. The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World, NY, St. Martin's Press, 1992
• Wright, Goldenberg, & Schofield, eds., Transcaucasian Boundaries, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1995
• Slezkine, Yuri, "The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism," in Eley, Geoff and Ronald Grigor Suny, Becoming National. A Reader, NY, Oxford U Press, 1996, pp.203-38. RES

Imperial ideologies and rhetoric

• Stremooukhov, Dimitry, "Moscow the Third Rome: Sources and Doctrine," in Cherniavsky, Michael, ed., The Structure of Russian History, NY, Random House, 1970, pp. 108-25
• "The Tale of the White Cowl," in Zenkovskii, Serge, Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales,NY, Dutton, 1974, pp. 323-32.
• Rollins, P. J., "Emperor, Russian, use of the title," in Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, ed., J. L. Wieczynski, 10, pp. 200-01.
• N. S. Trubetzkoy, "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: A Perspective on Russian History Not from the West but from the East," in A. Liberman, ed., The Legacy of Genghis Khan and Other Essays on Russia's Identity, Ann Arbor, Michigan Slavic Publications, 1991. RES
• Said, Edward, "From Orientalism," in Williams, P., and L. Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory. A Reader. NY, Columbia UP, 1994, pp. 132-149. RES
• Said, Edward, Orientalism, NY, Vintage, 1979.
• Williams, P., and L. Chrisman, eds., Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory. A Reader. NY, Columbia UP, 1994, pp. 162-71
• Jersild, Austin, Orientalism and Empire: North Caucasian Mountain Peoples and the Georgian Frontier, 1845-1917, Montreal, McGill-Queens University Press, 2002. Mac library: DK 509.J477 2002 Contains a pertinent bibliography on pp.220-46.

Imperialism and ethnicity

• Fowkes, Ben, Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in the Post-communist world. NY, Palgrave, 2002--Choice/D.V. Schwartz has the following to say about the book: "Fowkes has set himself a daunting challenge in this book: to identify forces that explain the rise of ethnic conflict in postcommunist states of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe [. . . ] insights from the "constructivist" approach to the origins of ethnic conflict. While recognizing the historical origins of modern nations in premodern ethnicities, Fowkes argues that nations developed in different historical contexts, and that they evolved and adapted under communism. Capsule summaries of the historical development of the ethnic communities and nations of the region illustrate his case, an approach that allows him to identify both common patterns across the large number of cases and differences (especially between East and West) based on experiences with statehood, religion, and imperial conquest [. . .]" I've ordered this for our library.
• Khodarkovsky, Michael, Russia's Steppe Frontier: the Making of a Colonial Empire 1500-1800. Indiana University press, 2002.N.M.-- Brooks/Choice had this to say about the book: "[. . .] examines the relationship between Russia and its neighbors on the Eurasian steppe [ . . ] from the northern Caucasus area into the Central Asian region of present-day Kazakhstan, from about 1500 to 1800. During these formative years, Russia's continual southern expansion into the borderlands helped transform it from a fragmented and weak frontier society into a formidable colonial empire. [. . .] the relationship between the Russian state and the indigenous nomadic and seminomadic societies that inhabitted the steppe, emphasizing their fundamental differences in social organization, political and economic structures, and values.. [. . .] argues that Russia's southward expansion was, contrary to commonly accepted views, a deliberate process designed to colonize the new regions and to subdue their inhabitants. However, Russia's policies gradually changed during these three centuries from defending its vulnerable frontier against nomadic incursions to deliberate colonization by means of pacifying, settling, and converting the new subjects to Orthodox Christianity." I've ordered it for the library.
• Kajda, Lubomir and Mark Beissinger, The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society,Boulder, Westview Press, 1990

Imperialism and Russian literature

• Andrews, Joe, "The Prisoner of the Caucasus," in Narrative and Desire in Russian Literature, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1993, pp. 11-31)
• Austin, Paul M., "The Exotic Prisoner of Russian Romanticism," in Russian Literature XVI (1984):217-74--puts Lomonosov, Zhukovsky etc. into the context of Russian/Western literary representations of exotic & prisoner topoi--leading into Pushkin's "The Prisoner"--rich on the literary context; mentions Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Bestuzhev, Lermontov--and a host of lesser figures--some Russian quotes untranslated, skim it, but don't get overburdened by the Russian or the numerous lesser figures mentioned)
• Bagby, Lewis, Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky and Russian Byronism.
• Hokanson, Katya, "Literary Imperialism, Narodnost' and Pushkin's Invention of the Caucasus," in The Russian Review, 53(July 1994):336-52
• Layton, Susan, Russian Literature and Empire. Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 1994. RES
• Leighton, Lauren, Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. Boston, Twayne, 1975.
• Ram, Harsha, "Russian Poetry and the Imperial Sublime," in Greenleaf, M and Stephen Moeller-Sally, eds., Russian Subjects. Empire, Nation, and the Culture of the Golden Age, pp.21-50.
• Sandler, Stephanie, in Distant Pleasures. Alexander Pushkin and the Writing of Exile. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989, pp. 145-165

Imperialism and Gender

• Alloula, Malek, The Colonial Harem, Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1986.
• Sandler, Stephanie, Distant Pleasures. Alexander Pushkin and the Writing of Exile, Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989, pp. 165-83
• Andrew, Joe, "Not Daring to Desire: Male/Female and Desire in Narrative in Pushkin's 'Bachcisaraiskij fontan'," Russian Literature XXIV (1988): 259-74
• Andrew, Joe, Narrative and Desire in Russian Literature, NY, St. Martin's Press, 1993, pp. 31-41
• Greenleaf, Monika, "The Foreign Fountain: Self as Other in the Oriental Poem," in Pushkin and Romantic Fashion. Fragment, Elegy, Orient, Irony. Stanford, Stanford UP, 1994, pp. 371-78

Cossacks

• Kornblatt, Judith, The Cossack Hero in Russian Literature. A Study in Cultural Mythology, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
• Raeff, M., "In the Imperial Manner"in Catherine the Great. A Profile. NY, Hill & Wang, 1972.

Contemporary Chechnia

• Avtorkhanov, Abdurahman, "The Chechens and the Ingush During the Soviet Period and its Antecedents," in Broxup, Marie, ed., The North Caucasus Barrier. The Russian Advance Toward the Muslim World. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1995
• Bitov, Andrei, The Captive of the Caucasus, New York, Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1994. Fiction.
• Cornell, Svanta, Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus, Ithaca, Cornbell University Press.
• Trenin, Dm and A. V. Malashenko, Russia's Restless Frontier, Washington DC, Carnegie Endowment, 2004
• Jaimoukha, Amjad, The Chechens. A Handbook, NY, Routledge, 2005
• Sakwa, Richard, Chechnya. From Past to Future, London, Anthem Press, 2006
• Brower Daniel and Edward J. Lazzerini, eds., Imperial Borderlands and Peoples, 1700-1917, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1997.
• Dunlop, John B., Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998
• Gall, Carlotta and Thomas de Waal, Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus. N. Y. New York University Press. Account of the "first" modern war in Chechnia (1994-96). Gall was reporting for The Moscow Times during the war. de Waal was reporting in Chechnia for The Moscow Times and The Times of London.
• Lieven, Anatol, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power, Yale University Press, 1999. Lieven, journalist-turned-academic gives a highly intelligent account of the "first" war in Chechnia (1994-96) with ample historical background for the conflict.
• Nivat, Anne, Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines, NY, Public Affairs, 2001. Nivat is a journalist at thew French periodical Liberation who travelled to Chechnia to report on the current conflict.
• Politkovskaia, Anna, A Dirty War: A Russian reporter in Chechnya, London, Harvill, 2001. Politkovskaia is a reporter from the li9beral, semi-weekly Russian newspaper Novaia Gazeta and she tells her stories on the current war both from inside Chechnia and from a liberal Russian point of view.

II. SELECTED WEB SITES:

Macalester Library course bibliography: http://libdata.macalester.edu/page.phtml?page_id=177%20

Jamestown Foundation

Eurasianet Good source for recent news and feature articles on all aspects of the region: cultural, economic, environmental, etc.

Harvard Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus A good place for further resources: societies devoted to this region, experts, academic programs, etc.

Trenin-on-line. Recent book, The End of Eurasia, on-line in its entirety

Caucasus Foundation This is the english language page for the caucasus Foundation which posts pro-Caucasian, (and some would say, anti-Russian) news, analysis, and primary source documents. The primary source material may be the most relevant material; the reportage and analysis of events is not always objective. The group is funded and run by the Caucasian diaspora.

Dagestan An interesting perspective on the Vhechen conflict can be found on this site, which claims to be the official site of the Republic of Dagestan, neighbor to Chechnia. Some of the most up-to-date information is available only in Russian but several basic articles also in English

Human Rights Watch. News updates and press releases from this international monitoring organization.

"Chechnya: Renewed Catastrophe"

Memorial. the main english-language page for memorial Human Rights Center, a well-known Russian human rights group founded in the perestroika era by liberal intellectuals and dissidents to advocate "rehabilitation" of victims of Stalin's purges. Today, memorial deals not only with historical issues, but also monitors rights violations in conflict zones. Go to http://www.memo.ru/eng/memhrc/hotpoint.shtml for information about human rights in "trouble spots"--Chechnia, Karabakh, and the Ossetia-Ingush border.

Moscow Carnegie Center. Think-tank with lots of interesting information on contemporary Russian and American scholarship.

Anne Nivat op-ed on Chechnya published in the Wasington Post on Aug 20, 2002. NB: The US Holocaust Memorial Museum had her speak recently.

Cossacks

Chechnya at Eastview Publishers

This page was last updated on 9/19-02