Overview

In early nineteenth-century Russia, members of jocular literary societies gathered to recite works written in the lightest of genres: the friendly verse epistle, the burlesque, the epigram, the comic narrative poem, the prose parody. In a period marked by the Decembrist Uprising and heightened state scrutiny into private life, these activities were hardly considered frivolous; such works and the domestic, insular spaces within which they were created could be seen by the Russian state as rebellious, at times even treasonous. Joe Peschio offers the first comprehensive history of a set of associated behaviours known in Russian as “shalosti,” a word which at the time could refer to provocative behaviours like practical joking, insubordination, ritual humiliation, or vandalism, among other things, but also to literary manifestations of these behaviours such as the use of obscenities in poems, impenetrably obscure allusions, and all manner of literary inside jokes. One of the period’s most fashionable literary and social poses became this complex of behaviours taken together. Peschio explains the importance of literary shalosti as a form of challenge to the legitimacy of existing literary institutions and sometimes the Russian regime itself. Working with a wide variety of primary texts—from verse epistles to denunciations, etiquette manuals, and previously unknown archival materials—Peschio argues that the formal innovations fuelled by such “prankish” types of literary behaviour posed a greater threat to the watchful Russian government and the literary institutions it fostered than did ordinary civic verse or overtly polemical prose.

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9780299290443

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Reviews

""One of the most engaging, yet understudied, aspects of Russia's 'golden age' is the playfulness of its verse, prose, and familiar letters. Peschio brings conceptual power, scholarly rigor, and an appropriately light touch to this important but elusive topic. An absolutely indispensable study of the creative irreverence of the Pushkin period.""--William Todd, Harvard University ""This engaging volume by Peschio . . . is a welcome addition to a growing body of books dealing with the icon of Russian literature from an iconoclastic perspective.""--Choice ""A model of exacting scholarship--often written, appropriately, with a witty tongue in cheek.""--Slavic Review ""Original, imaginative, well researched, convincingly argued, and excellently written. This book fills an important lacuna in the history of Russian literature and culture of the early nineteenth century.""--Irina Reyfman, author of Ritualized Violence Russian Style: The Duel in Russian Culture and Literature ""Theoretical approaches are handled with deftness and grace. . . . Peschio is also an exemplary archival scholar, scrupulous in his thoroughness and imaginative in the connections he is able to make among seemingly disparate discoveries. . . . Should be required reading for anyone with a serious interest in the literature, society, and culture of early nineteenth-century Russia.""--Slavic and East European Journal

Original, imaginative, well researched, convincingly argued, and excellently written. This book fills an important lacuna in the history of Russian literature and culture of the early nineteenth century. --Irina Reyfman, author of Ritualized Violence Russian Style: The Duel in Russian Culture and Literature

Theoretical approaches are handled with deftness and grace. . . . Peschio is also an exemplary archival scholar, scrupulous in his thoroughness and imaginative in the connections he is able to make among seemingly disparate discoveries. . . . Should be required reading for anyone with a serious interest in the literature, society, and culture of early nineteenth-century Russia. Slavic and East European Journal

Theoretical approaches are handled with deftness and grace. . . . Peschio is also an exemplary archival scholar, scrupulous in his thoroughness and imaginative in the connections he is able to make among seemingly disparate discoveries. . . . Should be required reading for anyone with a serious interest in the literature, society, and culture of early nineteenth-century Russia. Alyssa Gillespie, Slavic and Eastern European Journal

Author Information

Joe Peschio is assistant professor of Russian and coordinator of the Slavic languages program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

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