The thesis is concerned with the social and political thought of the Moscow Slavophiles, a small group of writers and thinkers active in Russia during the middle decades of the 19th century. The existing literature has made little attempt to relate the Slavophiles' ideas to social and economic changes taking place in Russia, instead preferring to take a biographical or textual approach. Where attention has been given to the importance of wider social and economic factors, the treatment has usually been brief and discursive. This thesis tries to overcome the problem by devoting more attention to social and economic issues than has been customary in previous considerations of Slavophilism. Chapters 2 and 3 develop a detailed social biography of members of the Slavophile circle, casting doubt on the conventional view that they were representatives of the 'middle' provincial gentry, frightened by the prospect of economic change. In reality, they understood that economic change could offer benefits as well as Costs. Several members of the circle reorganised farming practices on their landed estates to take advantage of the commercial opportunities given by technical and economic changes in agriculture. Chapters 4-7 examine the development of Slavophile social and political thought, arguing that it evolved in response to changes in the social, economic and political enviroment. Before 1855, at a time when the repressive Government of Nicholas I was unwilling to countenance publicly the prospect of reform, Slavophile political ideas were expressed via the medium of bizarre historical and sociological theories. However, after Nicholas' death, when the new Government began to actively consider the possibility of emancipating the serfs, Slavophile ideas began to be expressed in a more mundane form. At the same time, the contradictions between the populist elements in their thought and their interests as members of the wealthy gentry became more apparent. This contradiction became even clearer after 1861, and eventually helped fragment the earlier unity of the circle. Chapter 7 examines a somewhat different theme; namely, the relationship between early Slavophilism and Panslavism. By examining Slavophile journals of the 1850?s, the thesis casts doubt on the idea that there is a clear theoretical and historical distinction between Slavophilism and Panslavism. Panslavism appealed to those grouped around Slavophile journals because it seemed to offer Russia an opportunity to find new allies in the international system at a time when its fortunes were at a low ebb.

This thesis analyses the representation of Jewish women in pre-revolutionary Russian literature, focusing on the period 1881–1907. It argues that Jewish women, far from universally marginalized, played a central role in works by a number of Russian writers, embodying and challenging not only stereotypes but also a variety of ideological viewpoints on key socio-political questions in late tsarist Russia. The ambiguous identity of Jewish women, portrayed as outsiders and yet also often as to some degree amenable, rendered them ideal figures through which to explore and test national and gender identities, and tolerance, in the Russian Empire. The thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter One considers how two major Russian writers, Chekhov and Kuprin, both reproduce and problematize stereotypes relating to Jewish women and Jews as a whole in their construction of the ‘Jewish feminine’. Chapter Two reveals how two writers from opposite ends of the political spectrum, the conservative antisemite Vsevolod Krestovskii and the liberal progressive Evgenii Chirikov, use narratives of Jewish female assimilation into Russian society to condemn the social and political status quo. Chapter Three examines the representation of the ‘demonic’ Jewess in novels concerning an alleged Jewish plot for world domination by two antisemitic writers, Nikolai Vagner and Vera Kryzhanovskaia. Chapter Four analyses the depiction of revolutionary Jewish women in works by two Russian-Jewish writers, David Aizman and Semen An-skii. Whether they portray Jewish women as striving for a just society or for its downfall, the texts use the figure of the Jewess to criticize late tsarist society. Indeed, this thesis concludes that the works, despite the prominence within them of Jewish women, are often less concerned with Jews and Jewesses as such than with the socio-political debates to which they contribute, particularly the question of Russian national identity and character.

This thesis examines the development of the image of Catholicism in Russian literary tradition between the end of the Napoleonic War and the end of the Second World War. It analyses Catholicism as represented in texts from several different genres – poetry, drama, essays, letters, travel writing and novels. The texts are taken from the work of Chaadaev, Pushkin, the Slavophiles, Gogol´, Tiutchev, the Russian Jesuits, Dostoevskii, Solov´ev, Rozanov, Merezhkovskii, Ellis and Dmitrieva, and Viacheslav Ivanov. The thesis argues that although aspects of the negative image of Catholicism in Russian literary culture remained fairly constant through this period of Russian history, the literary development of this image differed substantially from its development in polemics and essays. The literary sphere allowed Catholicism to be seen in a more open way. The treatment of Catholicism in poetry, novels and travel writing suggested that it be seen as a faith, just like Russian Orthodoxy. Writers depicting Catholicism in a positive light were striving for a universalism that they saw as the essence of being Russian. The thesis therefore reveals that while for some writers, ‘Russian’ and ‘Catholic’ were antithetical concepts, others had a receptive attitude to Catholicism, sometimes culminating in the act of conversion could be seen as a step towards the Universal and unity with the rest of humankind that all Russians should strive towards.

This thesis will explore the impact that the disintegration of the Soviet Union had on the role of literature in post-Soviet Russia between 1996 and 2008. The fate of Russian literature became a hotly debated topic after 1991 and among academics and literary critics fears about its quality were widespread. In the immediate post-Soviet period, all eyes were focused on Russia’s writers, and in the light of the new-found political freedom, many commentators, both Western and Russian, eagerly anticipated the emergence of new, even greater Russian literature. When this ‘new’ Russian literature failed to appear in the forms that the intelligentsia expected, and poor quality, mass-produced ‘trash’ gained supremacy in the book market, many declared Russian literature dead and turned away to explore other aspects of post-Soviet life. As a result, since the mid-1990s, there has been comparatively less written about Russian literature and the predictions of the early part of the first post-Soviet decade have not, to a greater or lesser extent, been revisited. This thesis seeks to provide further information about the ways in which the Russian literary scene has changed between 1996 and 2008, after the intense scrutiny of the outside world diminished and commentators became occupied with other aspects of post-Soviet life and leisure time. In an attempt to understand the way in which the changing political and economic landscape has affected the role that literature plays in Russia, this thesis draws on a number of case studies to provide a picture of the Russian literary scene between 1996 and 2008. Chapter One explores the changing face of the book market through the experiences of three publishing houses: Eksmo, Raduga and Feniks, each of which has different origins and has navigated the uncharted waters of an emerging market economy with relative degrees of success. Chapter Two focuses on the ‘thick’ literary journals. The ‘thick’ journals played an active role in the Soviet Union, particularly in the latter part of the 1980s, when the circulation of each publication soared as readers sought to keep abreast of the latest developments socially, politically and culturally. Novyi mir (New world) and Znamya (Banner) are the case studies in Chapter Two, and their changing fortunes are explored in the context of the Soviet era and in comparison to the ‘glossy’ journal, Afisha (Billboard), which has been published in Russia since 1999. No study of Russian literature would be complete without some consideration of the influence of politics on the sorts of texts that are published. Chapter Three questions the extent to which the Putin regime represented a return to a ‘cult of personality’, a phrase that started to reappear on the pages of Russia’s newspapers when Putin came to power. Texts by three authors: Dmitrii Bykov (1967- ); Viktor Teterin (1981- ); and Maksim Kononenko (1971- ) are used in order to explore how far literature and politics remain intertwined even in an era when there is so-called democracy operating within Russia. The fourth chapter investigates how the role of the writer has changed since 1996, and the ways in which popular literary genres have risen to prominence in spite of the intelligentsia’s attempts to preserve the quality of literature. The experiences of writers Boris Akunin (1956- ) and Oksana Robski (1968- ), along with their respective series The Adventures of Erast Fandorin (1998 to the present) and Ca$ual (2005) and Ca$ual 2 (2007) will be examined in Chapter Four. All translations from Russian, with the exception of The Adventures of Erast Fandorin (1998- ) and Ca$ual (2005), are my own. A modified version of the British Standard system of transliteration without diacritics is used. In the text, surnames ending in ‘yi’ and ‘ii’ are rendered as ‘y’, and the surnames of prominent figures, such as Yeltsin, and well-known Russian terms such as glasnost appear in the familiar, rather than in the more strictly transliterated forms. However, when quoting directly from other sources, parity has been retained with the original, even if this means rendering the same term differently owing to differences in the system of transliteration.

This thesis identifies and analyses the literary tendencies observable on the Russian Internet. In particular, it assesses which of these tendencies represent absolute novelties in Russian literary culture and which others are, instead, the legacy of traditional reading and writing habits adapted to the new media environment. This analysis is framed on one side by Internet studies, as it represents a case study of a particular segment of the Internet, and on the other side by the history of the book, as it examines the influence of computer technologies on production and consumption of literature in the context of global developments in book history, of which the Russian case is one example. In this context, this work proposes to analyse the changes in the role of the literary author in the era of user participation, keeping in mind how the contemporary cultural environment has been influencing the role of literature in Russia. Furthermore, it acknowledges the changes brought by the digital age to the distribution of, and access to, literature in a country as vast as Russia, where the literary market is nowadays subject to the laws of a capitalist economy rather than to central planning as it previously was. Finally, it focuses on how online developments in reading and writing are perceived within the debate about ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultural expressions in the Russian literary landscape. This study is carried out through the observation of online sources, such as literary communities, online libraries and self-publication websites. The main case studies are represented by websites dedicated to prominent contemporary authors Boris Akunin and Viktor Pelevin. On one hand, the thesis assesses how the authors’ works and public personas are represented on the respective official websites; on the other hand, it examines fans’ initiatives on websites which they themselves have created specifically to discuss their favourite authors and to share knowledge and original artistic contents inspired by Akunin’s and Pelevin’s books. A particular focus of interest in this work is, in fact, the point of view of readers and their relationship with the written text and with authors through online tools. Through the examples provided, it is possible to describe a literary culture ready to embrace the digital revolution, but still closely related to book culture, where traditional and innovative relationships with reading and writing coexist and both find expression on the pages of the RuNet.

This thesis uses the narrative framework developed by Theresa de Lauretis’ essay ‘Desire in Narrative’ (1984) to shed new light on the development of male and female characters in texts by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Isaac Babel, Mikhail Bulgakov and Boris Pasternak. De Lauretis’ narratological framework is based on work by Vladimir Propp and Yury Lotman. She draws attention to the inherently masculine identification of heroes, and argues that it is the development of these masculine heroes that drives narrative. I apply this insight to nineteenth-century texts including Crime and Punishment and The Idiot, War and Peace, Anna Karenina and a selection of Tolstoy’s short stories. From the twentieth century, I consider Red Cavalry, The Master and Margarita and Doctor Zhivago. This range of works, by five different writers spanning two centuries, draws out themes in the portrayal of male heroes changing and developing, spiritually and intellectually ‘moving’, throughout narratives. I show the variety of ways female characters act as helpers, or donors, to their male counterparts; and also as the prize awaiting them at the end of their successful quest. This re-reading highlights the significance of cycles of death, transformation and rebirth for the development of masculine heroes. While in texts by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, male heroes strive for intellectual and rational mastery, in twentieth-century texts the focus shifts to male characters’ abilities to exercise artistic and creative freedom. In contrast to the cerebral and imaginative freedom associated with masculine heroes, I highlight portrayals of physical and sexual violence against women’s bodies, showing that female charcters are associated with their physical bodies to a far greater extent than male heroes experience embodiedness. The intellectual freedom and development of masculine heroes is privileged, while female characters remain in static positions, more defined by bodily limitations and vulnerabilities than male protagonists.