Book contents
- Reviews
- The Firebird and the Fox
- The Firebird and the Fox
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Color Plates
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: An Age of Genius
- Part I Emancipation of the Arts (1850–1889)
- 1 Freedom and the Fool
- 2 Desire and Rebellion
- 3 Artists and Subjects
- 4 Anton Chekhov in His Time
- 5 The Writer as Civic Actor
- Part II Politics and the Arts (1890–1916)
- Part III The Bolshevik Revolution and the Arts (1917–1950)
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
5 - The Writer as Civic Actor
from Part I - Emancipation of the Arts (1850–1889)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2019
- Reviews
- The Firebird and the Fox
- The Firebird and the Fox
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Color Plates
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: An Age of Genius
- Part I Emancipation of the Arts (1850–1889)
- 1 Freedom and the Fool
- 2 Desire and Rebellion
- 3 Artists and Subjects
- 4 Anton Chekhov in His Time
- 5 The Writer as Civic Actor
- Part II Politics and the Arts (1890–1916)
- Part III The Bolshevik Revolution and the Arts (1917–1950)
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy imagined a diverse nation in different ways, but each embraced humanity in all its diversity and did so not only as artist but also as citizen and moral spokesman. In Chekhov’s The Island of Sakhalin (1895) and Tolstoy’s Resurrection (1899), the writers led the evolution of the artist’s role as a new civic actor on the national stage. Russian writers began to dream in the 1860s of an inclusive big tent of the arts, but just what and how the disparate elements of Russian society might share in a common culture was contested. Tolstoy and Chekhov expressed their own views on the topic in their books Resurrection and Sakhalin, which were neither backward-looking glorifications of peasant traditions nor forward-looking visions of modernization. Rather, the authors described people sharing the vast landscape of the empire in recognition of their commonality, acceptance of diversity, and rejection of parochial interests. They emphasized place rather than time. Both authors carved out a shared national space, within which they offered readers a new view of their fellow citizens. Of the two authors, it would be Chekhov rather than Tolstoy who transitioned successfully into the next wave of innovation in art.
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- The Firebird and the FoxRussian Culture under Tsars and Bolsheviks, pp. 80 - 92Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019