19th-Century Women Writers in Context I: Gan, Pavlova, Zhukova, and Tur in European, Theoretical, and Romantic Contexts

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya (“V. Krestovsky—pseudonym,” 1821-89) was one of Russia’s most popular and respected writers in the nineteenth century, yet she is only now beginning to receive the critical attention she deserves. As Anna Berman asks in an NYU Jordan Center blog last year, “Amid calls to ‘decenter’ Russian literature, one call we do not hear often enough is to finally correct our view of what ‘the center’ actually was. This does not mean ignoring the ‘peripheries,’ but instead restoring to our narrative of Russian literature a group of figures who were at the center but have largely dropped from view: Russia’s great nineteenth-century women writers.” There were over 400 professional women writers in the nineteenth century. As we seek to liberate Russia’s nineteenth-century literary canon, this stream focuses on the comparative, theoretical, and political contexts for women writers who wrote about a wide variety of topics. These two panels explore the works of Elena Gan, Caroline Marbouty and Marguerite Gardiner (Countess of Blessington); the works of Karolina Pavlova, Elena Gan and Marya Zhukova; and Evgeniia Tur.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 19th Century

Chair

• Zora Kadyrbekova, McGill U (Canada)

Papers

• 'Writing Free' from Social Constraints: A Relational Reading of Early-19th Century Sentimental Fiction - Raffaella Pastore, U of International Studies of Rome (Italy)

• The Impossible Woman in Nineteenth Century Russian Literature - Mary Elisabeth Elliott, UC Davis

• Evgeniia Tur’s 'Antonina' and the Byronic Hero - Marcus C. Levitt, U of Southern California

Discussant

• Andrea Lanoux, Connecticut College

Session Manager

• Nana Gulic, U of Toronto (Canada)