Writers and Rebels: The Literature of Insurgency in the Caucasus

Description

Spanning the period between the end of the Russo-Caucasian War and the death of the first female Chechen suicide bomber, this groundbreaking book is the first to compare Georgian, Chechen, and Daghestani depictions of anticolonial insurgency. Rebecca Gould draws from previously untapped archival sources as well as from prose, poetry, and oral narratives to assess the impact of Tsarist and Soviet rule in the Islamic Caucasus. Examining literary representations of social banditry to tell the story of Russian colonialism from the vantage point of its subjects, among numerous other themes, Gould argues that the literatures of anticolonial insurgency constitute a veritable resistance—or “transgressive sanctity”—to colonialism. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Note on Transliteration and Method Map of the Caucasus Region, 1871–1888 INTRODUCTION: The Caucasus as Region, Literature as Method ONE: The Abrek in Soviet Chechen Literature TWO: Regulating Rebellion: Miracles, Insurgency, and Daghestani Modernity THREE: The Georgian Poetics of Insurgency: Redeeming Treachery FOUR: Violence as Recognition, Recognition as Violence EPILOGUE: Transgression as Sanctity? Appendix I: The Abrek in Caucasus Vernacular Literatures Appendix II: Georgian Text of Titsian Tabidze, “Gunib” Chronology of Texts, Authors, and Events Abbreviations Notes Glossary A B D G H I J K M N O P Q S T U V Y Z Bibliography Acknowledgments Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z