Pushkin's Historical Imagination

Description

This book explores the historical insights of Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), Russia’s most celebrated poet and arguably its greatest thinker. Svetlana Evdokimova examines for the first time the full range of Pushkin’s fictional and nonfictional writings on the subject of history—writings that have strongly influenced Russians’ views of themselves and their past. Through new readings of his drama, Boris Godunov; such narrative poems as Poltava, The Bronze Horseman, and Count Nulin; prose fiction, including The Captain’s Daughter and Blackamoor of Peter the Great; lyrical poems; and a variety of nonfictional texts, the author presents Pushkin not only as a progenitor of Russian national mythology but also as an original historical and political thinker. Evdokimova considers Pushkin within the context of Romantic historiography and addresses the tension between Pushkin the historian and Pushkin the fiction writer . She also discusses Pushkin’s ideas on the complex relations between chance and necessity in historical processes, on the particular significance of great individuals in Russian history, and on historical truth. Contents Preface Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION. History, Fiction, and the Complementarity of Narrative Representations Part I. History And National Identity One. The Impediments of Russian History Two. Chance and Historical Necessity Part II. History and Narrative Three. The Historian as Contextualist: Pushkin’s Polemic with Radishchev Four. History in the Service and Disservice of Life: “The Hero” Part III. Petra Scandali: Pushkin Confronts Peter the Great Five. Forging Russian History: The Blackamoor of Peter the Great Six. Poltava: The Myth of Holy War Seven. History as Myth: The Bronze Horseman AFTERWORD NOTES SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX