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3.4 - Drama I

from History 3 - Forms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 December 2024

By
Kirill Zubkov
Edited by
Simon Franklin ,
Rebecca Reich  and
Emma Widdis
Simon Franklin
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Rebecca Reich
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Emma Widdis
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter describes the development of Russian drama over the first two centuries of its history. It begins with the court theatre of the seventeenth century, which formed under the influence of Polish and Ukrainian examples, and goes on to trace the slow development of public theatre. The chapter presents the political and social transformation of the audience as both a driving force behind the evolution of Russian drama and an important theme of numerous authors, including but not limited to Aleksandr Sumarokov, Denis Fonvizin, Aleksandr Griboedov, Nikolai Gogol, and Aleksandr Ostrovskii. The work of these authors reflected the shifting values and conditions of Russian society and state ideology, and influenced spectators and readers by offering up models of behaviour.

Keywords

Russian dramacourt theatreRussian theatrecomedytragedyperformance
Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge History of Russian Literature , pp. 520 - 536
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Frame, Murray, School for Citizens: Theatre and Civil Society in Imperial Russia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Golden, Robert Justin (ed.), The Frightful Stage: Political Censorship of the Theater in Nineteenth-Century Europe (New York: Berghahn Books, 2009).Google Scholar
Kholodov, E. G. et al. (eds.), Istoriia russkogo dramaticheskogo teatra [A history of Russian dramatic theatre], 7 vols. (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1977–87).Google Scholar
Ospovat, Kirill, Terror and Pity: Aleksandr Sumarokov and the Theater of Power in Elizabethan Russia (Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2016).Google Scholar
Petrovskaia, I. F., Teatr i zritel' provintsial'noi Rossii. Vtoraia polovina XIX veka [The theatre and the spectator in provincial Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century] (Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1979).Google Scholar
Schuler, Catherine A., Theatre and Identity in Imperial Russia (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2009).Google Scholar
Sofronova, L. A., Poetika slavianskogo teatra XVII–pervoi poloviny XVIII veka: Pol'sha, Ukraina, Rossiia [The poetics of the Slavic theatre from the seventeenth to the first half of the eighteenth century: Poland, Ukraine, Russia] (Moscow: Nauka, 1971).Google Scholar
Starikova, L. M., Teatr i zrelishcha rossiiskikh stolits v XVIII veke. Istoriko-dokumentirovannye ocherki [Theatre and spectatorship in the Russian capital in the eighteenth century. Historical and documentary sketches (Moscow: GTsTM im. A. A. Bakhrushina, 2018).Google Scholar
Swift, E. Anthony, Popular Theater and Society in Tsarist Russia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).Google Scholar
Wirtschafter, Elise Kimerling, The Play of Ideas in Russian Enlightenment Theater (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003).Google Scholar

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  • Drama I
  • Edited by Simon Franklin, University of Cambridge, Rebecca Reich, University of Cambridge, Emma Widdis, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of Russian Literature
  • Online publication: 31 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108655620.031
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Drama I
  • Edited by Simon Franklin, University of Cambridge, Rebecca Reich, University of Cambridge, Emma Widdis, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of Russian Literature
  • Online publication: 31 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108655620.031
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Drama I
  • Edited by Simon Franklin, University of Cambridge, Rebecca Reich, University of Cambridge, Emma Widdis, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of Russian Literature
  • Online publication: 31 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108655620.031
Available formats
×