Review of Partan, O. (2017). Vagabonding masks. The Italian commedia dell’arte in the Russian artistic imagination. Boston: Academic Studies Press. 294 pages

Abstract

In her book, Olga Partan touches upon theatrical and literary history from the early 1600s, her detailed analysis of certain renowned works of literature and dramatizations revealing their new aspects. The interdisciplinary method of her work enables Partan to create a study which comfortably accommodates Trediakovsky with Gogol, and Dostoevsky; Sumarokov with Block, and Bely; and even Alla Pugachova with Vladimir Nabokov, side by side on its pages. The author of Vagabonding Masks examines their 300-year old adventures in Russian culture, from the times of Peter I. She believes that the Italian genre became part and parcel of Russian culture from the moment when the first Italian theatrical companies were invited to perform at the court of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The book follows a chronological order: starting from the first Russian theatres and all the way to Giorgio Strehler’s tour of the country in the early 2000s: a powerful boost to Modernist theatrical art inRussia, as opposed to the deeply rooted Stanislavsky traditions.