The Literature of Roguery in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Russia. By Marcia A. Morris. Studies in Russian Literature and Theory. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2000. x, 173 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $79.95, hard bound.

Slavic Review ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-183
Author(s):  
Andreas Schönle
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Russian Literature ◽  
Northwestern University ◽  
X 173

A Gothic Prelude

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-35
Author(s):  
Valeria Sobol
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Russian Literature ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

This chapter examines the earliest and the most “classical” Gothic tale in Russian literature — Nikolai Karamzin's The Island of Bornholm (1793) where the Russian traveler, stranded on a mysterious Danish island, is surprised to learn that the island used to be populated by Slavs. The fictional traveler's investigation of the mysteries of the island (deriving from possible incest and the resulting punishment) becomes a journey back to the dark pagan origins of Russian history and a Gothic prelude to Karamzin's later historical project. The Island of Bornholm remains an isolated phenomenon in late-eighteenth-century Russian literature, unique for its complex fusing of Gothic tropes and historical concerns.

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