The History of Ivan Turgenev's Reception in the U.S. during 1860s-1900s

• In Event: Russian Thought in Context: Literary Formations, Transnational Receptions, and Political Imaginings from Empire to Exile

Abstract

In my presentation, I will share the outcomes of my recent research focused on the reception of Ivan Turgenev in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I will concentrate on the period from the 1860s to the 1900s, marking the initial phase of Turgenev's popularity as the first Russian author to gain significant recognition in the U.S. To establish some context, I will explore the backdrop of the American Civil War, the state of Russian-American relations at that time, and the story of the first translator, Eugene Schuyler, who admired Turgenev's novel “Fathers and Sons.” Following this, I will discuss the highest point of Turgenev's popularity in the 1870s, analyzing reviews of his works by prominent figures such as T.S. Perry, W.D. Howells, and Henry James. Next, I will examine the 1880s and 1890s, explaining the decline in interest toward this writer as literary attention shifted to Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. I will summarize this reception as a cultural response to Russian literature that coincided with the emergence of realism in the U.S. During this period, Turgenev's style and his provincial, "deeply grounded into soil" imagery became a prominent example of realist writing. Finally, I will assert that by the end of the 19th century, the concept of a "Russian school" for young writers had taken root in American literature.

Author

• Elena Makarova, UCLA