Puzzling Creative Agency: Rebuses, Professionalism, and Gender in Late Imperial Russia

• In Event: Networks, Collaborations, and Identities: Women’s Agency in Late Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union

Abstract

This presentation explores how rebuses (picture riddles) became a platform for women’s intellectual and creative agency in late 19th-century Russia. Despite their popularity, rebuses were never institutionalised—they brought no wealth, status, or formal recognition. Yet, this lack of gatekeeping made them particularly appealing to women, who were being pushed out of traditional fields of knowledge and artistic production. By creating and solving rebuses, they asserted their intellectual presence in an overlooked cultural space. At the heart of this study is the question of authorship and authority, examined through the case of Anna Paskhalova-Mordovtseva (1823–1885), a poet, writer, and ethnographer who published rebuses under the pseudonym R. Merlina. Her work in Rebus magazine and standalone publications not only established her own intellectual presence but also opened the field to dozens of women after her. This talk examines authorship and authority in rebuses, showing how they provided an alternative space for women’s creative agency beyond institutional constraints.

Author

• Ksenia Butuzova, U of Oxford (UK)