Awards

• Short-listed for The 2023 Svetlana Boym Best Book in Cultural Studies American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL) 2024 (United States)

Overview

A Woman's Empire explores a new dimension of Russian imperialism: women actively engaged in the process of late imperial expansion. The book investigates how women writers, travellers, and scientists who journeyed to and beyond Central Asia participated in Russia's ""civilizing"" and colonizing mission, utilizing newly found educational opportunities while navigating powerful discourses of femininity as well as male-dominated science. Katya Hokanson shows how these Russian women resisted domestic roles in a variety of ways. The women writers include a governor general's wife, a fiction writer who lived in Turkestan, and a famous Theosophist, among others. They make clear the perspectives of the ruling class and outline the special role of women as describers and recorders of information about local women, and as builders of ""civilized"" colonial Russian society with its attendant performances and social events. Although the bulk of the women's writings, drawings, and photography is primarily noteworthy for its cultural and historical value, A Woman's Empire demonstrates how the works also add dimension and detail to the story of Russian imperial expansion and illuminates how women encountered, imagined, and depicted Russia's imperial Other during this period.

Full Product Details

9781487545604

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Reviews

"""Empire is, by default, a masculinist project. A Woman's Empire challenges this view from both within and below. It takes the reader on a breathtaking journey across imperial Russia's Asiatic frontiers, seen through the eyes of a remarkable set of women writers, artists, scientists, and spiritual leaders who contributed as much to the imperial project as they critiqued and undermined its foundational assumptions.""--Anindita Banerjee, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Cornell University ""Katya Hokanson's new book stands out as a valuable contribution to the study of the Russian empire and its literary representations. It offers the most comprehensive analysis of female writers travelling to the eastern borderlands of the empire and beyond. By focusing on the issues of gender and colonial difference, Hokanson explores when, how, and with what results women added their unique perspectives to the predominantly male business of empire-building.""--Olga Maiorova, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan"

Empire is, by default, a masculinist project. A Woman's Empire challenges this view from both within and below. It takes the reader on a breathtaking journey across imperial Russia's Asiatic frontiers, seen through the eyes of a remarkable set of women writers, artists, scientists, and spiritual leaders who contributed as much to the imperial project as they critiqued and undermined its foundational assumptions. - Anindita Banerjee, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Cornell University Katya Hokanson's new book stands out as a valuable contribution to the study of the Russian empire and its literary representations. It offers the most comprehensive analysis of female writers travelling to the eastern borderlands of the empire and beyond. By focusing on the issues of gender and colonial difference, Hokanson explores when, how, and with what results women added their unique perspectives to the predominantly male business of empire-building. - Olga Maiorova, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan

Author Information

Katya Hokanson is an associate professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon.

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