Haunted Empire: Gothic and the Russian Imperial Uncanny

213 Pages·2020·4.958 MB·English

by  Valeria Sobol

H AUNTED EMPIRE
A volume in the NIU Series in
S lavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
E dited by Christine D. Worobec
F or a list of books in the series, visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.
H AUNTED EMPIRE
GOTHIC AND THE RUSSIAN
IMPERIAL UNCANNY
Valeria Sobol
N ORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY PRESS
A N IMPRINT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Ithaca and London
C opyright © 2020 by Cornell University
A ll rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review,
this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any
form without permission in writing from the publisher. For
information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House,
512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our
website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.
F irst published 2020 by Cornell University Press
L ibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
N ames: Sobol, Valeria, author.
T itle: Haunted empire : Gothic and the Russian imperial
uncanny / Valeria Sobol.
Description: Ithaca [New York] : Cornell University Press,
2020. | Series: N IU series in Slavic, East European, and
Eurasian studies | Includes b ibliographical references
and index.
I dentifiers: LCCN 2019050549 (print) | LCCN 2019050550
(ebook) | ISBN 9781501750571 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781501750595 (pdf) | ISBN 9 781501750588 (ebook)
S ubjects: LCSH: Gothic fiction (Literary genre), Russian—
History and c riticism. | Gothic fiction (Literary genre)—
History and criticism. | Ukrainian fiction—History and
criticism. | Imperialism in literature. | U ncanny, The
(Psychoanalysis), in literature.
C lassification: LCC PG3098.G68 S63 2020 (print) |
LCC PG3098.G68 (ebook) | DDC 891.73/08729—dc23
L C record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050549
L C ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.
gov/2019050550
Cover image: Vasily Vereshchagin, The Apotheosis of War, 1871.
Oil on canvas, 127 cm. (50 in.) × 197 cm. (77.5 in.). Tretyakov
Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
To David, Nika, and Lana

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Transliteration and Translation xi
I ntroduction. From the Island of
Bornholm to Taman′: The Literary
Trajectory of the Russian
Imperial Uncanny 1
Part I: The North
1 . A Gothic Prelude: Nikolai Karamzin’s
“The Island of Bornholm” 27
2. In Search of the Russian Middle Ages:
The Livonian Tales of the 1820s 36
3. “Gloomy Finland” and Russian Gothic
Tales of Assimilation 52
Part II: The South
4 . Ukraine: Russia’s Uncanny Double 81
5 . On Mimicry and Ukrainians: Empire
and the Gothic in Antonii Pogorel′sky’s
The Convent Graduate 94
6 . ’Tis Eighty Years Since: Panteleimon
Kulish’s Gothic Ukraine 109
A fterword 135
N otes 139
W orks Cited 177
I ndex 191

Acknowledgments
T his project was several years in the making,
and I am indebted to many institutions and individuals for their support. The
sabbatical leave granted by the University of Illinois back in 2012 enabled me
to conduct preliminary research in my native Kyiv and to outline the scope
of this book. The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded this
project both a summer stipend and a year-long fellowship, which allowed me
to conduct additional research in Moscow and to spend an entire year work-
ing exclusively on this book. The University of Illinois Center for Advanced
Study’s appointment provided me with an additional semester of invaluable
teaching release, while the Campus Research Board award and an Interna-
tional Program and Studies Travel Research Grant, also at the University of
Illinois, further supported my research for this project.
I want to thank my former and current colleagues at the University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who have responded to parts of this book at its
various stages or simply offered their collegiality and friendship on a daily
basis: Laura Davies Brenier, Michael Finke, George Gasyna, Roman Ivashkiv,
Lilya Kaganovsky, Harriet Murav, Richard Tempest, Gene Avrutin, Diane
Koenker, John Randolph, Mark Steinberg, Craig Koslofsky, Laurie Johnson,
and Anke Pinkert. I am grateful to the late Nancy Abelmann who, in her
capacity as the then associate vice chancellor for research, helped me not
only create a successful grant proposal but also shape this book in a more
meaningful way. The University of Illinois Slavic Reference Service provided
me with prompt access to any materials I requested, whether I was over-
seas or at home, in Urbana—thank you, Joe Lenkart. I also thank my gradu-
ate research assistants—Irina Avkhimovich, Serenity Stanton Orengo, and
LeiAnna Hamel—for their conscientious work.
I am indebted to the invaluable advice and expertise of my colleagues
in the field, with whom I have collaborated on publications and confer-
ence panels related to nineteenth-century Russian prose, Gothic literature,
empire, and Ukrainian studies or who have supported my work on this
book in other ways: Katherine Bowers, Nancy Condee, Alexander Etkind,
ix