Russian orientalism: from ethnography to art song in nineteenth-century music
Journal: eScholarship@McGill (McGill)
Year: 2014

Russia's ambivalent geo-political and socio-cultural position, as a self-avowed intermediary between the East and the West, shaped its double identity and played an important role in the creation of Russia's own Oriental Other. This dissertation examines the political and cultural resonance of nineteenth-century Russian art songs with oriental or Asian subjects, both within and outside of Edward Said's theoretical construct of "Orientalism." It also addresses how Russian art song composers adapt