Julia Bekman Chadaga's Books

Optical Play

Glass, Vision, and Spectacle in Russian Culture

By: Julia Bekman Chadaga

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Optical Play

Glass, Vision, and Spectacle in Russian Culture

By: Julia Bekman Chadaga

Longlist finalist, 2015 Historia Nova Prize for Best Book on Russian Intellectual and Cultural History Julia Bekman Chadaga’s ambitious study posits that glass—in its uses as a material and as captured in culture—is a key to understanding the evolution of Russian identity from the eighteenth century onward. From the contemporary perspective, it is easy to overlook how glass has profoundly transformed vision. Chadaga shows the far-reaching effects of this phenomenon. Her book examines the similarities between glass and language, the ideological uses of glass, and the material’s associations with modernity, while illuminating the work of Lomonosov, Dostoevsky, Zamyatin, and Eisenstein, among others. In particular, Chadaga explores the prominent role of glass in the discourse around Russia’s contentious relationship with the West—by turns admiring and antagonistic—as the nation crafted a vision for its own future. Chadaga returns throughout to the spectacular aspect of glass and shows how both the tendentious capacity and the playfulness of this material have shaped Russian culture.

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332

Publisher

Northwestern University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0810167883

ISBN 13

9780810167889

Wonderlands of the Avant-Garde

Technology and the Arts in Russia of the 1920s

By: Julia Vaingurt

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Wonderlands of the Avant-Garde

Technology and the Arts in Russia of the 1920s

By: Julia Vaingurt

In postrevolutionary Russia, as the Soviet government was initiating a program of rapid industrialization, avant-garde artists declared their intent to serve the nascent state and to transform life in accordance with their aesthetic designs. In spite of their professed utilitarianism, however, most avant-gardists created works that can hardly be regarded as practical instruments of societal transformation. Exploring this paradox, Vaingurt claims that the artists’ investment of technology with aesthetics prevented their creations from being fully conscripted into the arsenal of political hegemony. The purposes of avant-garde technologies, she contends, are contemplative rather than constructive. Looking at Meyerhold’s theater, Tatlin’s and Khlebnikov’s architectural designs, Mayakovsky’s writings, and other works from the period, Vaingurt offers an innovative reading of an exceptionally complex moment in the formation of Soviet culture.

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322

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Northwestern University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0810166526

ISBN 13

9780810166523

Optical Play

Glass, Vision, and Spectacle in Russian Culture

By: Julia Bekman Chadaga

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Optical Play

Glass, Vision, and Spectacle in Russian Culture

By: Julia Bekman Chadaga

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

332

Publisher

Northwestern University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0810167883

ISBN 13

9780810167889

Book's by Julia Bekman Chadaga

Optical Play

Optical Play

Wonderlands of the Avant-Garde

Wonderlands of the Avant-Garde

Optical Play

Optical Play

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