Studia Litterarum (Dec 2020)
The Russian Theme in English Novels and its Reception in the Reviews of the Anglo-Russian Literary Society
Abstract
From the very beginning of its existence, Anglo-Russian Literary Society had D.M. Wallace’s following words as its motto. At the end of his his book Russia, he writes: “Meanwhile, our [as the English] duty is clear. We ought to know Russia better.” Eager promoter of Russian culture and literature since 1893, the Society nevertheless was ignoring popular English novels on Russian themes for quite a long time. In 1899, a “specially invited discussion” revealed the reason for this hostile silence: according to the Society, “the representation of Russian life in English novels had been misleading.” However, 10 years after its foundation, the Society began publishing reviews on these novels in its Proceedings. Moreover, the tone of these reviews may be described as moderately favorable. The analysis of the papers allows me to assume that this shift may be explained by the change of criteria applied to the novels (the criterion of “educativeness” was balanced by the criterion of entertainment): the popularizing function of these novels finally comes first.
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