Developing poetry into a form of theurgy (“divine work,” from the Greek θεουργία) is perhaps the most heraldically proclaimed yet scantly defined preoccupation of the Russian Symbolist poet Viacheslav Ivanov (1866-1949). The Symbolist movement’s philosophical progenitor, Vladimir Solov’ev (1853-1900), sounded the clarion call for theurgic art in his treatise Crisis of Western Philosophy (1874), however the concept of theurgy dates to late antiquity, when the Neoplatonist philosophers Iamblichus (c. 245–c. 325 CE) and Proclus (412–485 CE) posited theurgic ritual as superior to theological discourse. While it has been established that Ivanov followed Solov’evian paradigms in creating theurgic art, the Neoplatonic context of Ivanov’s engagement with theurgy has remained hitherto unexplored in Slavist scholarship.

This dissertation argues for Neoplatonic theurgy as an active constituent in Ivanov’s poetics and theory of the symbol. Being an accomplished classical historian and philologist as well as a poet and theoretician, Ivanov incorporated both Solov’evian and Neoplatonic theurgic ideas into his highly allusive, richly symbolic, and archaically stylized poetry. Neoplatonism supplied Ivanov with a notion of the symbol as a conduit of divine mysteries, a mythopoetic device, and a functional element of ritual practice. With the aid of theurgically charged symbols, Ivanov sought to construe Dionysus and the Orphic mystery rites associated with him as predecessors to Christ and the Christian sacraments.

Ivanov’s theurgic project is particularly exemplified by “Suspiria,” a poetic cycle which draws symbolic parallels between Orphic and Christian rituals. The epigraph to “Psyche,” a poem contained in the cycle, features a quotation from the Orphic gold tablets (ancient leaves of gold foil bearing hexametrical post-mortem instructions for initiates into Dionysian mystery cults), which Ivanov discusses in theurgic terms in his philological treatise Dionysus and Predionysianism. Cross-referencing Ivanov’s philological and poetic works reveals that his research on ancient theurgy provided material that he re-deployed as theurgic symbols in his poetry. The “Suspiria” cycle’s streamlining of Orphic mystery rites with Christian sacraments is not merely a representation of a historical lineage, but an enactment of theurgic ritual through symbolic poetry.

What is the role of sociocultural history in the evolution of national identity? How is the worldview of Russian citizens reflected in contemporary art and popular culture? My dissertation, which examines narratives of national identity in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, approaches these questions and others through an historical analysis of Russian fantastika film adaptations and the literary works upon which they are based. Illustrating transitions in perceptions of Russian identity as they are reflected in over thirty examples of Soviet and post-Soviet fantastika, this project provides a critical reconsideration of historical theories on the “Russian idea” and offers new perspectives on what it means to be Russian in the twenty-first century.

My study employs a synthesis of approaches from the fields of cultural history, literature, film, and gender studies. The primary hypothesis is that it is possible, through an historical analysis of fantastika film adaptations (and their corresponding literary sources), to obtain a fundamental understanding of post-Soviet culture by examining crucial transformations in the Russian worldview over the course of a century; namely, from 1917 to 2017. These transformations, viewed through the lens of sociocultural history, provide insight into the essential features of national identity in contemporary Russia.

Fantastika, a genre which includes science fiction, fantasy, gothic horror, and other works involving fantastical elements, is a highly influential force in the Russian literary and cinematic traditions. Particularly during periods of severe censorship, fantastika played an integral role in the dissemination of novel (or “unofficial”) worldviews. Employing alien planets, outer space, and other fantastical settings, Soviet authors and directors developed fictional macrocosms with which to juxtapose contemporary reality and provide commentary on issues relevant to modern society. In the post-Soviet period, techniques borrowed from their predecessors have enabled artists to continue in this tradition, allowing them to offer fresh perspectives on Russia and its place in global society.

Russian national identity has been a subject of international debate for at least three centuries. This dissertation reconsiders models promoted by Russian intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (including Petr Chaadaev, Sergei Uvarov, Nikolai Berdiaev, and Vladimir Bibler) and employs techniques developed by contemporary Western observers (including Birgit Beumers, Eliot Borenstein, and Stephen Norris) to offer a revised assessment of Russian national identity in the twenty-first century. It advances, reframes, and challenges some of the conclusions drawn by these figures by analyzing fantastika film adaptations in the context of their (for the most part persuasive) theories. My hope is that this project will be considered a meaningful contribution to the study of Russian culture in the modern age.

This dissertation examines the symbolic role the fashion system played in the process of modernization of nineteenth-century Russian society, and in the articulation of that process in literary texts of the period. Because of its infinite potential for the creation of new and ambiguous meanings, as well as its formal similarity with literature, which requires constant innovation in order to sustain marketability, writing about fashion offered a rich context for debates about the nature of aesthetics, society, and modernity.

Each chapter focuses on a unique moment in the cultivation of fashion, taste, and consumer habits in the latter half of the nineteenth century, beginning with Nikolai Nekrasov and Ivan Panaev’s commodification of literature in their journalistic and literary texts of the 1840s, through Ivan Goncharov’s narratives of self-fashioning and Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s examination of commerce and ideology mid-century, to Leo Tolstoy’s commodification of the female subject in Anna Karenina during the 1870s, and its subsequent echoes in our contemporary cinematic experience of the novel. Rather than focusing on fashion per se, this dissertation instead examines fashion culture, which involves new social roles, new forms of communication, and ultimately new values and attitudes. My project thus considers the implications of fashion not only for the development of the Russian literary sphere in the nineteenth century, but also for our contemporary cultural processes.

Russian artists of the early twentieth century focused not merely on the production of their own artistic works but also on the aestheticization of life itself. This phenomenon, known as zhiznetvorchestvo (life-creation), was often expressed in the form of dandyism. Modernists clothed themselves in unconventional fashion and exhibited eccentric behavior in order to express their opposition to what they considered as the anti-aestheticism of quotidian life. Of the various instances of Russian modernist dandyism, this dissertation examines three distinctive manifestations of decadent self-creation. The primary material for analysis my discussion includes biographies, critical essays, and literary works that address the decadent aesthetic and its practice in life. First, I explore the literary group comprised of Valerii Briusov, Konstantin Bal'mont, and Aleksandr Dobroliubov by focusing on their demonic aestheticism. The next chapter illustrates the dandyism of Mikhail Kuzmin who rejects what he considered the demonic decadents' amoral aestheticism and in its place turns to Hellenic notions of beauty for inspiration. Lastly, I explore the dandyism of Aleksandr Blok who assumes the mask of a jester-dandy grieving over the loss of aesthetic ideals and who expresses his sorrow through theatrical performance. I also compare the three cases of Russian decadent dandyism with their European counterparts, particularly that of Oscar Wilde and Charles Baudelaire. By doing so, this work not only demonstrates the influence of Western dandyism on Russian decadent self-creation but also considers differences between the two aesthetics, particularly their distinctive concepts of convention and beauty. In addition, I argue that in contrast to their Western counterparts Russian decadent dandyism and the aesthetics associated with it hardly marginalized such idealistic values as Hero, Truth, Life and Nature.

Framed by Spolsky’s (2004) three-part model for language policy, this qualitative case study examines the ways in which supplementary education and family language policies assist in raising bilingual and biliterate speakers of Russian and English. It explores two domains of the children’s life: the contexts of family and a Russian Saturday School by investigating specific language beliefs, practices, and language management strategies at the Russian School and the families of five of its graduates as well as by providing a threefold perspective of parents, teachers and adolescents. Observations, interviews and surveys provide different types of data that helps us understand of how these different contexts impact the adolescents’ language development and their attitude towards their heritage language.

In line with previous research, this study confirms the leading role of parents in heritage language preservation. The main components of the parents’ language policy that supported bilingualism were (1) dedication to the home language and culture, (2) adherence to strict rules about when each language is used, and (3) support of Russian language development by providing additional opportunities to practice both receptive and reproductive skills in Russian. In the family context, language management was largely implemented through language practices and parental language use was one of the main tactics of such management.

The study demonstrates that the Russian School played an important role in the lives of these families not only as a place of supplementary education but also as a community builder where children socialized in the Russian culture in a pressure-free atmosphere. It played an important role in building a positive attitude towards the Russian language in adolescence.

The analysis also reveals a diminishing role of parents and teaching in affecting language choices and language practices of children in adolescence. At this stage, their choice to use Russian for personal activities was closely related to the opportunities to use the Russian language outside of the home and the Russian School, especially in communication with their peers.

This study has implications for the theory of family language policy, heritage language educators, program planners, and immigrant families interested in raising bilingual-biliterate children.

In 1923, the preeminent Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky gathered the main forces of the Soviet avant-garde under the umbrella of the Left Front of the Arts (LEF) and its two journals, LEF (1923–1925) and Novyi LEF (1927–1928). This dissertation examines the contribution of LEF’s screenwriters to the film industry in the 1920s and early 1930s by focusing on the screenwriting oeuvre of the journals’ editors—Osip Brik, Sergei Tretiakov, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Part and parcel of a larger discussion about the role of screenplays in Soviet film studies, LEF’s screenwriting remains one of the most obscure aspects of the group’s engagement with cinema. The central argument of this thesis elaborates the view that these authors’ film-works had a closer connection to the group’s ethos than previously understood. My analyses rely on the examination of Brik, Tretiakov, and Mayakovsky’s screen ideas alongside relevant theoretical articles, extant film footage, archival sources, historical cine-press publications, and personal memoirs. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between the group’s screenwriting theory and praxis.

This dissertation is organized into four chapters, an introduction, and a conclusion. The introduction delineates the research nexus, followed by chapter 1 that discusses the operational definition of LEF and traces the diachronic development of its engagement with the cine-medium. Chapter 2 uncovers links between LEF’s project and Osip Brik’s film-works and analyzes his authorship model through Viktor Shklovsky’s paradigm of literaturnaia podenshchina (daily literary labor). Chapter 3 demonstrates how Sergei Tretiakov’s idea of production screenplay was implemented in the corpus of his Georgian films. It also discusses Tretiakov’s authorship model through the concept of operative author, as theorized by Walter Benjamin. Chapter 4 evaluates Vladimir Mayakovsky’s screenplays written during the LEF period by drawing out their auteur features and juxtaposing them against the broader scope of the group’s film-works. By charting LEF’s contribution to cinema via categories of production principles, ideology, innovation, and authorship models, this dissertation advances a comprehensive view of the group’s participation in cinema. It contributes to the interdisciplinary field of avant-garde studies, as well as to the scholarship on Soviet cinema of the silent era.

Studying Dostoevsky’s poetics according to the principles of Orthodox Personalism—a school of thought that utilizes Anthropological and Ontological discourse to analyze contemporary philosophical and theological questions—frames a well-traversed area of scholarly interest within a novel literary, philosophical, theological, and historical perspective. This dissertation offers a unique interpretation of his work in relation to three areas of focus. The first area, Synergetic Anthropology and Relational Anthropology, serves to establish boundaries of realism as a genre for Dostoevsky according to his Christian, yet non-Western, worldview. Second, Personalist aesthetics operate at theoretical and practical levels within the novels to create dynamic motion between typological levels of fictional beings. The third area, Hesychastic tradition, an Orthodox monastic methodology that guides adherents toward a mode of authentic being-in-relation, is coded into the novels by Dostoevsky and opens his texts to a mode of higher realism. As an author, Dostoevsky seeks to unravel the mystery of the human being, and in order to engage this mystery his poetics become innovative, attempting to rise up to a “higher” level of realism to faithfully depict the world according to Dostoevsky’s Orthodox Weltanschauung. The questions of whether and how Dostoevsky achieves this higher realism have been debated since before the author’s death in 1881. Investigating these still-disputed questions through the lens of Orthodox Personalism according to the writings of scholars such as Vladimir Solovyov, Sergei Horuzhy, Christos Yannaras, and John Zizioulas, all of whom have contributed to the development of a mode of discourse that has blossomed from Dostoevsky’s engagement with Orthodox philosophy, requires a new language of literary analysis in order to ascertain certain fundamental qualities of the author’s oeuvre that have been overlooked or misinterpreted. This analysis lays bare the foundations of Dostoevsky’s artistic output. It is essential to expose these foundations in order to shed light on Dostoevsky’s authorial intentions, but also, and more importantly, to express why his work continues to generate contemporary interest in academia, in interpretations across other mediums such as film, music, and graphic novels, and in the minds of young people who read him at the high school and university levels globally. Dostoevsky’s deep concern for the human person as an individual of infinite value stems from the particular Orthodox conceptions of human uniqueness, the capacity for self-emptying love, and freedom. But these concepts, as conveyed through his artistry, are universal. The dissertation investigates the particulars of Dostoevsky’s ideology from the tradition in which he works in order to promote further study on his artistic output from various perspectives based on these principles. The first chapter consists of an exposition of the Orthodox Personalist tenets of Anthropology and Ontology juxtaposed with Western views. The second chapter uses this exposition to set the boundaries of Dostoevsky’s realism and to create a typology of fictional being within his novels and compares each of these four levels with other Russian authors. The third chapter investigates how Dostoevsky’s theory of aesthetics within the Orthodox context functions within the novels, pushing his fictional beings into higher typological levels and disrupting narrative form. The fourth and final chapter discusses how principles of the Orthodox Hesychastic tradition are utilized by Dostoevsky to unify his views on being, the person, and beauty and how this synergy raises his artistic output to the realm of higher realism. In the conclusion I argue that although Orthodox Personalist literary analysis is uniquely suited for Dostoevsky studies, this novel mode of analysis is applicable to other genres and forms of fiction through the idea of threshold art.