Vagabonding Masks
The Italian Commedia dell'Arte in the Russian Artistic Imagination
Published on 20. April 2017
Book
Hardback
294 pages
978-1-61811-571-3 (ISBN)
Description
The iconic masks of the Italian commedia dell'arte-Harlequin, Pierrot, Colombina, Pulcinella, and others-have been vagabonding the roads of Russian cultural history for more than three centuries. This book explores how these masks, and the artistic principles of the commedia dell'arte that they embody, have profoundly affected the Russian artistic imagination, providing a source of inspiration for leading Russian artists as diverse as nineteenth-century writer Nikolai Gogol, modernist theater director Evgenii Vakhtangov, Vladimir Nabokov, and the empress of Russian popular culture Alla Pugacheva. The author presents a new perspective on this topic, showing how the commedia dell'arte has nourished a rich cultural tradition in Russia.
Reviews / Votes
"Olga Partan's research is interdisciplinary and innovative. [...] Partan easily combines a variety of different fields in the overall picture of Russian culture's infatuation with the commedia dell'arte. The author enthusiastically and fascinatingly surfs in the immense world of literature and art, substantiating her very interesting and innovative hypothesis that the impact of Italian commedia dell arte on Russian culture was significant not only during the epoch of Russian modernism, but from its very first performances in early modern Russia until the beginning of the twenty first century." - Women East-West NewsletterMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Brighton
United States
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
608 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-61811-571-3 (9781618115713)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Olga Partan is Assistant Professor of Russian at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. She received her PhD with a dissertation on the commedia dell'arte in Russian culture from Brown University in 2004. She has authored several articles and book chapters on Russian literature and the performing arts, and a Russian-language memoir You were right, Filumena! (Moscow: PROZAiK, 2012).
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration
Introduction
Chapter 1: Early Harlequinized Art
Chapter 2: Anna Ioannovna's Italian Decade
Chapter 3: Russifying the Commedia dell'Arte: Vasilii Trediakovsky and Aleksandr Sumarokov
Chapter 4: Ramifications of the Italian Decade
Chapter 5: Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat: The Italian Ancestry of Akakii Bashmachkin
Chapter 6: The Modernist Revival of the Commedia dell'Arte
Chapter 7: The Commedia dell'Arte in Evgenii Vakhtangov's Princess Turandot
Chapter 8: Harlequin and His Lath: Vladimir Nabokov's Last Novel Look at the Harlequins!
Chapter 9: From the Empress Anna Ioannovna to the Empress of Popular Culture, Alla Pugacheva
Epilogue: The Italian Arlecchino on the Post-Soviet Stage
Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration
Introduction
Chapter 1: Early Harlequinized Art
Chapter 2: Anna Ioannovna's Italian Decade
Chapter 3: Russifying the Commedia dell'Arte: Vasilii Trediakovsky and Aleksandr Sumarokov
Chapter 4: Ramifications of the Italian Decade
Chapter 5: Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat: The Italian Ancestry of Akakii Bashmachkin
Chapter 6: The Modernist Revival of the Commedia dell'Arte
Chapter 7: The Commedia dell'Arte in Evgenii Vakhtangov's Princess Turandot
Chapter 8: Harlequin and His Lath: Vladimir Nabokov's Last Novel Look at the Harlequins!
Chapter 9: From the Empress Anna Ioannovna to the Empress of Popular Culture, Alla Pugacheva
Epilogue: The Italian Arlecchino on the Post-Soviet Stage