Fantastic Empires: Imaginary Travel in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia
This dissertation examines Russian fantastical travel narratives from 1784 to 1855, an era of substantial imperial conquest, in which authors of various backgrounds, both Russian and non-Russian, wrestled with questions of cultural identity and the prospects for Russia’s development on the global sc...
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ftcolumbiauniv:oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/43n5-7e66 2024-09-15T17:48:45+00:00 Fantastic Empires: Imaginary Travel in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia Bruce, Stephen Andrew 2024 https://doi.org/10.7916/43n5-7e66 English eng https://doi.org/10.7916/43n5-7e66 Russian literature Travel in literature Future The in literature Eighteenth century Nineteenth century Territorial expansion Moon Science fiction Shcherbatov M. M. (Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich) kni︠a︡zʹ 1733-1790 Levshin Vasiliĭ 1746-1826 Ki︠u︡khelʹbeker V. K. (Vilʹgelʹm Karlovich) 1797-1846 Senkovskīĭ Osip Ivanovich 1800-1858 Bulgarin Faddeĭ 1789-1859 Theses 2024 ftcolumbiauniv https://doi.org/10.7916/43n5-7e66 2024-08-23T04:10:24Z This dissertation examines Russian fantastical travel narratives from 1784 to 1855, an era of substantial imperial conquest, in which authors of various backgrounds, both Russian and non-Russian, wrestled with questions of cultural identity and the prospects for Russia’s development on the global scale, while in a profound but often contentious relationship with the countries of Western Europe. My chapters cover three different categories of fantastic travel. The first includes journeys to undiscovered space, including Antarctica and the Moon (in works by Shcherbatov, Lyovshin, Kiukhelbeker, and Senkovsky), which largely criticize Russian expansionism. The second is stories of travel to or in the distant future (Vilgelm Kiukhelbeker, Faddei Bulgarin, and Vladimir Odoevsky), which project a more positive view of Russian imperial destiny. The third category is metafictional travel, through maps and the written page (Veltman), which deconstructs the very notion of imperial reality. I argue that writers employed the genre of fantastic travel literature, as well as specific devices such as dreams and frame narratives, to critically interrogate and reshape the imperial and national ideologies of their time. These works anticipate modern science fiction by using a wide range of spatial and temporal settings to create new worlds that highlight the possibilities or faults of their own societies, for satirical or didactic purposes—and as such they benefit from the application of recent theories of science fiction. Given the diverse range of authors and time periods I investigate, my work also has a taxonomic purpose, delineating the thematic evolution of fantastic travel narratives in different categories and paving the way for more targeted analyses of these understudied works. Thesis Antarc* Antarctica Columbia University: Academic Commons |
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Columbia University: Academic Commons |
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ftcolumbiauniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Russian literature Travel in literature Future The in literature Eighteenth century Nineteenth century Territorial expansion Moon Science fiction Shcherbatov M. M. (Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich) kni︠a︡zʹ 1733-1790 Levshin Vasiliĭ 1746-1826 Ki︠u︡khelʹbeker V. K. (Vilʹgelʹm Karlovich) 1797-1846 Senkovskīĭ Osip Ivanovich 1800-1858 Bulgarin Faddeĭ 1789-1859 |
spellingShingle |
Russian literature Travel in literature Future The in literature Eighteenth century Nineteenth century Territorial expansion Moon Science fiction Shcherbatov M. M. (Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich) kni︠a︡zʹ 1733-1790 Levshin Vasiliĭ 1746-1826 Ki︠u︡khelʹbeker V. K. (Vilʹgelʹm Karlovich) 1797-1846 Senkovskīĭ Osip Ivanovich 1800-1858 Bulgarin Faddeĭ 1789-1859 Bruce, Stephen Andrew Fantastic Empires: Imaginary Travel in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia |
topic_facet |
Russian literature Travel in literature Future The in literature Eighteenth century Nineteenth century Territorial expansion Moon Science fiction Shcherbatov M. M. (Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich) kni︠a︡zʹ 1733-1790 Levshin Vasiliĭ 1746-1826 Ki︠u︡khelʹbeker V. K. (Vilʹgelʹm Karlovich) 1797-1846 Senkovskīĭ Osip Ivanovich 1800-1858 Bulgarin Faddeĭ 1789-1859 |
description |
This dissertation examines Russian fantastical travel narratives from 1784 to 1855, an era of substantial imperial conquest, in which authors of various backgrounds, both Russian and non-Russian, wrestled with questions of cultural identity and the prospects for Russia’s development on the global scale, while in a profound but often contentious relationship with the countries of Western Europe. My chapters cover three different categories of fantastic travel. The first includes journeys to undiscovered space, including Antarctica and the Moon (in works by Shcherbatov, Lyovshin, Kiukhelbeker, and Senkovsky), which largely criticize Russian expansionism. The second is stories of travel to or in the distant future (Vilgelm Kiukhelbeker, Faddei Bulgarin, and Vladimir Odoevsky), which project a more positive view of Russian imperial destiny. The third category is metafictional travel, through maps and the written page (Veltman), which deconstructs the very notion of imperial reality. I argue that writers employed the genre of fantastic travel literature, as well as specific devices such as dreams and frame narratives, to critically interrogate and reshape the imperial and national ideologies of their time. These works anticipate modern science fiction by using a wide range of spatial and temporal settings to create new worlds that highlight the possibilities or faults of their own societies, for satirical or didactic purposes—and as such they benefit from the application of recent theories of science fiction. Given the diverse range of authors and time periods I investigate, my work also has a taxonomic purpose, delineating the thematic evolution of fantastic travel narratives in different categories and paving the way for more targeted analyses of these understudied works. |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Bruce, Stephen Andrew |
author_facet |
Bruce, Stephen Andrew |
author_sort |
Bruce, Stephen Andrew |
title |
Fantastic Empires: Imaginary Travel in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia |
title_short |
Fantastic Empires: Imaginary Travel in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia |
title_full |
Fantastic Empires: Imaginary Travel in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia |
title_fullStr |
Fantastic Empires: Imaginary Travel in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fantastic Empires: Imaginary Travel in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia |
title_sort |
fantastic empires: imaginary travel in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century russia |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7916/43n5-7e66 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.7916/43n5-7e66 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7916/43n5-7e66 |
_version_ |
1810290268976447488 |