History of Women's Writing in Russia

A History of Women's Writing in Russia offers a comprehensive account of the lives and works of Russia's women writers. Based on original and archival research, this volume forces a re-examination of many of the traditionally held assumptions about Russian literature and women's role in the tradition. In setting about the process of reintegrating women writers into the history of Russian literature, contributors have addressed the often surprising contexts within which women's writing has been produced. Chapters reveal a flourishing literary tradition where none was thought to exist. They redraw the map defining Russia's literary periods, they look at how Russia's women writers articulated their own experience, and they reassess their relationship to the dominant male tradition. The volume is supported by extensive reference features including a bibliography and guide to writers and their works.

Review of the hardback: 'A History of Women's Writing in Russia marks a highpoint in Russian studies … A History of Women's Writing in Russia lays the foundations of a new, comprehensive literary history inclusive of both male and female discourses. Ultimately, this book is going to become a 'classic' for its significant contribution to a better understanding of not only Russian women's writing, but of Russian literature as a whole.' Journal of European Studies, Review of the hardback: 'The editors and authors have done a superb job, and Cambridge University Press has again demonstrated its pivotal role in shaping academic thought.' Slavonica, Review of the hardback: ' … very important contribution, not only to the history of Russian women writers, but of Russian literature tout court.' Slavonic and East European Review

Adele Marie Barker is Professor of Russian and Slavic Languages and Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies at the University of Arizona. She is the author of The Mother Syndrome in the Russian Folk Imagination (1986), and co-author of Dialogues/Dialogi: Literary and Cultural Exchanges between (ex) Soviet and American Women (1994), and she is the editor of Consuming Russia: Popular Culture, Sex, and Society since Gorbachev (1999). Jehanne M Gheith is Associate Professor of Slavic and Women's Studies at Duke University. She is the author, with B. Norton, of An Improper Profession: Women, Gender and Journalism in Late Imperial Russia.