Tuesday, November 7, 2017

"Gloomy Finland" and the Russian Imperial Gothic

By Cassia Smith

On September 26, Dr. Valeria Sobol gave a talk based on a chapter of her book-in-progress Haunted Empire: The Gothic and the Russian Imperial Uncanny, 1790-1850. Olga Makarova, a graduate student in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, has written up the lecture for REEC's e-News.

Professor Sobol's book explores the connection between the Gothic and empire in Russian literature, focusing on the portrayal of Northern and Southern imperial borderlands as uncanny spaces. The lecture offered a brief analysis of Vladimir Odoevsky’s novella “The Salamander” (1844) meant to demonstrate this function of Finland in Russian Gothic literature. Makarova covers Dr. Sobol's main arguments and includes some contextual information for the topic. If you missed this lecture or just need a refresher, the article is worth checking out!


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