European University Institute Library

Optical play, glass, vision, and spectacle in Russian culture, Julia Bekman Chadaga

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-305) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Optical play

bibliography

879583912

Julia Bekman Chadaga

Northwestern University Press studies in Russian literature and theory

glass, vision, and spectacle in Russian culture

"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"--, Provided by publisher

Introduction -- Looking through glass : the transformation of vision -- The language of glass : making rhetorical objects -- The display of power : spectacular glass in Imperial Russia -- Glass architecture : glimpses of utopia -- The glass house as dream and nightmare -- Light in captivity : the glass object as ideological spectacle -- Conclusion