Life Is Elsewhere

In Life Is Elsewhere , Anne Lounsbery shows how nineteenth-century Russian literature created an imaginary place called "the provinces"—a place at once homogeneous, static, anonymous, and symbolically opposed to Petersburg and Moscow. Lounsbery looks at a wide range of texts, both canonical and less...

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Príomhchruthaitheoir: Lounsbery, Anne
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Foilsithe / Cruthaithe: Cornell University Press 2026
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Rochtain ar líne:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/110015
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author Lounsbery, Anne
author_browse Lounsbery, Anne
author_facet Lounsbery, Anne
author_sort Lounsbery, Anne
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description In Life Is Elsewhere , Anne Lounsbery shows how nineteenth-century Russian literature created an imaginary place called "the provinces"—a place at once homogeneous, static, anonymous, and symbolically opposed to Petersburg and Moscow. Lounsbery looks at a wide range of texts, both canonical and lesser-known, in order to explain why the trope has exercised such enduring power, and what role it plays in the larger symbolic geography that structures Russian literature's representation of the nation's space. Using a comparative approach, she brings to light fundamental questions that have long gone unasked: how to understand, for instance, the weakness of literary regionalism in a country as large as Russia? Why the insistence, from Herzen through Chekhov and beyond, that all Russian towns look the same? In a literary tradition that constantly compared itself to a western European standard, Lounsbery argues, the problem of provinciality always implied difficult questions about the symbolic geography of the nation as a whole. This constant awareness of a far-off European model helps explain why the provinces, in all their supposed drabness and predictability, are a topic of such fascination for Russian writers—why these anonymous places are in effect so important and meaningful, notwithstanding the culture's nearly unremitting emphasis on their nullity and meaninglessness. Open Access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
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publishDateRange 2026
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1721462026-02-20T05:03:17Z Life Is Elsewhere Lounsbery, Anne Comparative literature Symbolic geography Empire in literature Genre studies Regionalism Russia geography Russian culture thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHQ History of other geographical groupings and regions In Life Is Elsewhere , Anne Lounsbery shows how nineteenth-century Russian literature created an imaginary place called "the provinces"—a place at once homogeneous, static, anonymous, and symbolically opposed to Petersburg and Moscow. Lounsbery looks at a wide range of texts, both canonical and lesser-known, in order to explain why the trope has exercised such enduring power, and what role it plays in the larger symbolic geography that structures Russian literature's representation of the nation's space. Using a comparative approach, she brings to light fundamental questions that have long gone unasked: how to understand, for instance, the weakness of literary regionalism in a country as large as Russia? Why the insistence, from Herzen through Chekhov and beyond, that all Russian towns look the same? In a literary tradition that constantly compared itself to a western European standard, Lounsbery argues, the problem of provinciality always implied difficult questions about the symbolic geography of the nation as a whole. This constant awareness of a far-off European model helps explain why the provinces, in all their supposed drabness and predictability, are a topic of such fascination for Russian writers—why these anonymous places are in effect so important and meaningful, notwithstanding the culture's nearly unremitting emphasis on their nullity and meaninglessness. Open Access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities 2026-02-20T05:03:16Z 2026-02-20T05:03:16Z 2026-02-19T08:14:07Z 2019 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/110015 9781501747939 9781501747946 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/172146 eng NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/110015/2/9781501747946.pdf Cornell University Press Northern Illinois University Press 10.7298/pgj7-gx97 10.7298/pgj7-gx97 05937e7b-c222-4680-9580-c09c5ce7a11e 9781501747939 9781501747946 Northern Illinois University Press 360 Ithaca open access
spellingShingle Comparative literature
Symbolic geography
Empire in literature
Genre studies
Regionalism
Russia geography
Russian culture
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHQ History of other geographical groupings and regions
Lounsbery, Anne
Life Is Elsewhere
title Life Is Elsewhere
title_full Life Is Elsewhere
title_fullStr Life Is Elsewhere
title_full_unstemmed Life Is Elsewhere
title_short Life Is Elsewhere
title_sort life is elsewhere
topic Comparative literature
Symbolic geography
Empire in literature
Genre studies
Regionalism
Russia geography
Russian culture
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHQ History of other geographical groupings and regions
topic_facet Comparative literature
Symbolic geography
Empire in literature
Genre studies
Regionalism
Russia geography
Russian culture
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHQ History of other geographical groupings and regions
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/110015
work_keys_str_mv AT lounsberyanne lifeiselsewhere