Nesterenko, M. (2022). Roses without thorns: Women in the early 19th-century Russian literary process. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. (In Russ.)

Abstract

In focus of Maria Nesterenko’s book is the destiny of a writing woman in the history of literature. With the example of the once celebrated poet Anna Bunina, the critic seeks to explain the workings of literary oblivion. From a dispute about language that involves the warring factions of archaists and innovators, the book proceeds to reflections about the woman’s role in a national culture. The scholar ponders the legitimacy of professional writing by women. Anna Bunina’s literary career emerged at the crossing of two opposing traditions: while formally an adherent of Shishkov’s, the poet herself emphasized her affinity with Karamzin’s movement in the book of collected verse The Inexperienced Muse [Neopytnaya muza]. Literary critics of the early 19th c. would repeatedly stress Bunina’s connection to the archaists in blunt ignorance of her clearly stated creed in The Inexperienced Muse. Nesterenko demonstrates how this biographical fact began to define Bunina’s literary reputation and ultimately drove her into obscurity.