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Ghostly Paradoxes

Modern Spiritualism and Russian Culture in the Age of Realism

Ilya Vinitsky author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Toronto Press

Published:26th Oct '18

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Ghostly Paradoxes cover

The culture of nineteenth-century Russia is often seen as dominated by realism in the arts, as exemplified by the novels of Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev, the paintings of 'the Wanderers,' and the historical operas of Modest Mussorgsky. Paradoxically, nineteenth-century Russia was also consumed with a passion for spiritualist activities such as table-rappings, seances of spirit communication, and materialization of the 'spirits.' Ghostly Paradoxes examines the surprising relationship between spiritualist beliefs and practices and the positivist mindset of the Russian Age of Realism (1850-80) to demonstrate the ways in which the two disparate movements influenced each other.

Foregrounding the important role that nineteenth-century spiritualism played in the period's aesthetic, ideological, and epistemological debates, Ilya Vinitsky challenges literary scholars who have considered spiritualism to be archaic and peripheral to other cultural issues of the time. Ghostly Paradoxes is an innovative work of literary scholarship that traces the reactions of Russia's major realist authors to spiritualist events and doctrines and demonstrates that both movements can be understood only when examined together.

'Vinitsky has skillfully integrated cultural phenomenon and shown how they touched upon the deep questions of faith, the soul and immorality that continued to reverberate among those segments of Russian society and writers, who refused to capitulate to the pressure of materialism. This book will be most welcome by those interested in Russian Realism, cultural studies, and Russian spiritualism.' -- George Mihaychuk, Canadian Slavonic Papers, vol 52:1-2:2010

  • Winner of Outstanding Academic Title awarded by CHOICE Magazine 2010 (United States)

ISBN: 9781487523657

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 20mm

Weight: 420g

272 pages