Meanings and Values of Water in Russian Culture (Routledge Studies in Modern European History)

Bringing Together A Team Of Scholars From The Diverse Fields Of Geography, Literary Studies And History, This Is The First Volume To Study Water As A Cultural Phenomenon Within The Russian/soviet Context. Water In This Context Is Both A Cognitive And Cultural Construct And A Geographical And Physical Phenomenon, Representing Particular Rivers (the Volga, The Chusovaia In The Urals, The Neva) And Bodies Of Water (from Baikal To Sacred Springs And The Flowing Water Of Nineteenth-century Estates), But Also Powerful Systems Of Meaning From Traditional Cultures And Those Forged In The Radical Restructuring Undertaken In The 1930s. Individual Chapters Explore The Polyvalence And Contestation Of Meanings, Dimensions And Values Given To Water In Various Times And Spaces In Russian History. The Reservoir Of Symbolic Association Is Tapped By Poets And Film Makers But Also By Policy Makers, The Popular Press And Advertisers Seeking To Incite Reaction Or Drive Sales. The Volume's Emphasis On The Cultural Dimensions Of Water Will Link Material That Is Often Widely Disparate In Time And Space; It Will Also Serve As The Methodological Framework For The Analysis Undertaken Both Within Chapters And In The Editors' Introduction--provided By Publisher. Section One: Language And Myths Of Water -- Ivan Podiukov, Cultural Semantics Of Aquatic Imagery In The Russian Language -- Nicholas Breyfogle, Sacred Waters : The Spiritual World Of Lake Baikal -- Evgeny Platonov, Wells Of Superstition : The History Of Holy Springs In Russia, 18th-19th Centuries -- Dmitrii Zamyatin, Thinking With Water In A Russian Context -- Section Two: Socio-cultural Identities Of Water -- Oleg Riabov, Mother Volga And The Construction Of Russian Identity -- Maria Litovskaia, The Chief Worker Of The Urals : Metanarrative Of The Chusovaia River And Its Creation -- Sveta Yamin-pasternak, Andrew Kliskey, Lilian Alessa And Peters Schweitzer, A Cup Of Tundra : Ethnography Of Thirst In The Bering Strait -- Section Three: Water Rebuilding Landscapes -- Elena Miliugina And Mikhail Stroganov, Water On The Russian Gentry Estate -- Polina Barskova, Celebrating The Return Of The Flood Of Petersburg : 1824/1924 -- Cynthia Ruder, Imagined And Real : The Moscow Canal As The Port Of Five Seas -- Section Four: Aesthetics And Poetics Of Water -- Anastasia Kostetskaya, A Woman In Nature/a Woman Is Nature : The Eternal Feminine As A Conceptual Blend Of Human And Water Ontologies In Russian Symbolist Poetics -- Jane Costlow, Parched : Water And Its Absence In The Films Of Larisa Shepitʹko -- Arja Rosenholm, The Energizing Flow Of Water In Marietta Shaginian's Novel Hydrocentral -- Gitta Hammarberg, Spatriotism : Water In Literary Polemics (early 19th Century Russia). Edited By Jane Costlow And Arja Rosenholm. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series information 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Figures 8 Notes on contributors 10 Acknowledgments 15 Note on transliteration 16 Introduction 18 Notes 27 Bibliography 28 Section I Language and myths of water 30 1 The cultural semantics of water idioms in Russian dialects 32 Dialect idioms reflecting common symbolic meanings of water 35 The plot elements of water idioms in dialects 40 Notes 46 Bibliography 46 2 Sacred waters: The spiritual world of Lake Baikal 49 Water and the sacred 51 Creation stories: Baikal and the Buriats 52 Sacred waters and rocks: the water-related cosmologies of Baikal 54 Water, spirits, and human action 57 Contested waters 60 Divine Baikal 63 The religious world of Lake Baikal 64 Notes 65 Bibliography 65 3 On the veneration of springs in the nineteenth century: Models of behavior and decision-making practices 68 Notes 79 Bibliography 80 4 Daemon loci: The formation of river images in Russian mental worlds 82 River worlds: introduction to the context 82 Images of the river: stasis and dynamism 83 Daemon loci: the image’s genesis 84 The river and image archetypes: the pathways of civilizations 85 River discourse in Russian culture and literature: key elements 86 River and place: the becoming of image 87 The river text of Sasha Sokolova: the twilight of daemons 89 Zaitil’shchina: the optics of twilight landscapes 91 Notes 94 Bibliography 94 Section II Socio-cultural identities of water 96 5 “Mother Volga” and “Mother Russia”: On the role of the river in gendering Russianness 98 Rivers in the discourse of nationalism: gender dimension 98 The symbol of “Mother Russia” in Russian nationalism 99 “Mother Volga”: the history of the idea 101 Gendering semiotics of Volga 105 The functions of “Mother Volga” 106 Conclusion 110 Notes 110 Bibliography 111 6 Main street of the Urals: Creating the “Chusovaia” metanarrative 115 The Chusovaia: the “natural” foundation of a symbolic space 116 The Chusovaia: literature discovers the river 118 Chusovaia: tourist destination and site of class struggle 123 The Chusovaia: inventing the “message” 128 Note 131 Bibliography 131 7 A cup of tundra: Ethnography of water and thirst in the Bering Strait 134 Introduction 134 From the ice curtain to a steamy cup 135 The loved and ubiquitous beverage 135 Tea time in the Bering Strait 140 Finding “tasty tea” in contemporary water systems 142 Water in cooking and cleansing 143 Feeling and quenching thirst on each side of the Strait 146 Tea, coffee, and national belonging within the shared Beringian heritage 148 Concluding remarks 150 Acknowledgments 152 Bibliography 152 Section III Water rebuilding landscapes 154 8 Water on the Russian gentry estate 156 I. 157 II. 160 Notes 172 Bibliography 173 9 Celebrating the return of the flood 175 I. The new and the old: politics of the flood 178 II. Desire and anxiety of the flood 186 Notes 190 Bibliography 191 10 Water and power: The Moscow Canal and the “Port of Five Seas” 192 Notes 202 Bibliography 204 Section IV Aesthetics and poetics of water 206 11 A woman in nature/a woman is nature: The eternal feminine as a conceptual blend of human and liquescent ... 208 Introduction 208 Approaches: cognitive framework 210 Bal’mont’s and Musatov’s shared Symbolist poetics of the eternal feminine 212 Konstantin Bal’mont: “Apparitions” 213 Viktor Borisov-Musatov: Apparitions 215 Notes 219 Bibliography 221 12 Parched: Water and its absence in the films of Larisa Shepit’ko 224 Notes 236 Bibliography 236 13 “Water flows and teaches”: Marietta Shaginian’s novel Hydrocentral 239 The power plant of desire production 242 The palimpsestic text of the “sea of life” 245 Challenging modernization 246 Aqueous dissolution and metonymic discourse 250 “Concrete-water factor” 253 Notes 257 Bibliography 258 14 Spatriotism: Water recycling in literary polemics (late eighteenth- to early nineteenth-century Russia) 262 Notes 273 Bibliography 276 Index 279