Nineteenth-Century Russian Conservative Imaginaries

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

What constitutes a conservative imaginary? Taking as its subjects historiography, literature, painting, monumental sculpture, and cultural criticism, this panel seeks to demonstrate the breadth and variability of conservatism in 19th-century Russia. Preservationist and reactionary aesthetics have been overlooked in favor of radical art and political movements. However, our panel shows that conservatism in its many facets – from its middling and centrist modes of discourse, to its spaces for moral ambiguity, to its restorative ethics and public ethos – was fundamental to cultural production in Imperial Russia.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 19th Century

Chair

• Rose FitzPatrick, Yale U

Papers

• Nikolai Nadezhdin’s Return to Grace: Political Rehabilitation in the Era of Nicholas I - Nathaniel Knight, Seton Hall U

• Progressive Technologies, Conservative Fictions?: Lev Tolstoy’s Late Writings - Valeria Mutc, UC Davis

• Abridging History: Popular Forms for Patriotic Feelings - Chloe Simone Papadopoulos, U of Southern California

• Liberal Painter, Conservative Painting? Vasilii Perov's Volga Plunderers - Margaret Samu, The New School

Discussant

• Lynn E. Patyk, Dartmouth College