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Erotic Nihilism in Late Imperial Russia
The Case of Mikhail Artsybashev's Sanin
Otto Boele

“With meticulous scholarship and reasoned arguments, Otto Boele crafts a compelling tale about the realities, the legend, and the memory of a celebrated cultural moment in Russian life under the tsars.” —Richard Stites, author of Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900

Banned shortly after its publication in 1907, the Russian novel Sanin scandalized readers with the sexual exploits of its eponymous hero. Wreaking havoc on the fictional town he visits in Mikhail Artsybashev’s story, the character Sanin left an even deeper imprint on the psyche of the real-life Russian public. Soon “Saninism” became the buzzword for the perceived faults of the nation. Seen as promoting a wave of hedonistic, decadent behavior, the novel was suppressed for decades, leaving behind only the rumor of its supposedly epidemic effect on a vulnerable generation of youth.

Who were the Saninists, and what was their “teaching” all about? Delving into police reports, newspaper clippings, and amateur plays, Otto Boele finds that Russian youth were not at all swept away by the self-indulgent lifestyle of the novel’s hero. In fact, Saninism was more smoke than fire—a figment of the public imagination triggered by anxieties about the revolution of 1905 and the twilight of the Russian empire. The reception of the novel, Boele shows, reflected much deeper worries caused by economic reforms, an increase in social mobility, and changing attitudes toward sexuality.

Showing how literary criticism interacts with the age-old medium of rumor, Erotic Nihilism in Late Imperial Russia offers a meticulous analysis of the scandal’s coverage in the provincial press and the reactions of young people who appealed to their peers to resist the novel’s nihilistic message. By examining the complex dialogue between readers and writers, children and parents, this study provides fascinating insights into Russian culture on the eve of World War I. “An original, stimulating, and needed book, based on a rich array of archival and published sources. Situating his work at the nexus of regulation, poetics, rumor, and literary history, Boele carefully examines an important work of literature and its impact on the cultural mythology of its age.”—Eric Naiman, author of Sex in Public: The Incarnation of Early Soviet Ideology

A Mellon Slavic Studies Initiative Book
This book is part of a five-year initiative for publishing first books by scholars in the fields of Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies, supported by the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Otto Boele is assistant professor of Russian literature at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.

For more information regarding publicity and reviews contact our publicity manager, Chris Caldwell, phone: (608) 263-0734, email: publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu


Of related interest
Beyond the Flesh: Alexander Blok, Zinaida Gippius, and the Symbolist Sublimation of Sex
Jenifer Presto

Beyond the Flesh shows that although the Russian Symbolist movement was dominated by a concern with transcending sex, many of the writers associated with the movement exhibited an intense preoccupation with matters of the flesh.

 

The cover of Boele's book is black with red type. A cartoon figure gestures before a fire and an audience of children.

November 2009
LC: 2009013800 PG
274 pp.   6 x 9   8 b/w illus.
ISBN 978-0-299-23274-0
Paper $29.95 s

This is our e-book logo. It is green and represents an open book, with an e rising from it. ISBN 978-0-299-23273-3
e-book $19.95 s





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This is our e-book logo. It is green and represents an open book, with an e rising from it.Erotic Nihilism in Late Imperial Russia will soon be available through Amazon.com on the Kindle wireless reading device.

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