Holy foolishness in Russia
Subtitle: new perspectives
By: edited by Priscilla Hunt & Svitlana Kobets
Publisher: Slavica Publishers; Brand: Slavica Pub; Slavica Pub
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Bloomington, IN
Language: eng
Number of pages: 413
ISBN-13: 9780893573836
Subjects: Holy fools in art; Holy fools; Christian hagiography; Religion and culture; Christian saints; Religious life; Civilization
Description: "This richly illustrated volume’s innovative intersciplinary approaches and engagement with the newest scholarly literature presents a new basis for exploration of holy foolishness [iurodstvo] in Russia as a unique expression of national identity. Its articles elucidate the genesis, nature, and development of the foolishness in the medi[e]val period and its on-going significance as a broadly cultural and religious paradigm. Sweeping in its scope, this volume is poineering in several respects: addressing holy foolishness from its Byzantine origins to postmodern, contemporary Russia, it offers innovative explorations of hagiographical, historical, poetic, and liturgical apsects of writings about such seeminal holy fools as Andrew of Constantinople, Isaakii of Kiev Caves Monastery and Kseniia of St. Petersburg; the first English translation of A. M.Panchenko’s classic study of holy foolish phenomenology, 'Laughter as Spectacle'; and new discussions of miniatures accompanying the text of St. Andrew’s vita. Further, it addresses foundational moments in the institutionalization of holy foolishness: the Church calendar commemorations of holy fools inherited from Byzantium; the first Russian holy foolish narrative; the genesis of the Intercession cult in the vita of Andrew the fool; the first holy foolish vita with verifiable facts about the protagonist’s life; the first canonized Russian female holy fool, Kseniia of St. Petersburg; and comprehensive treatments of holy foolery’s culturological significance for Leningrad underground poets, Soviet and post-Soviet performance art, and postmodern thinkers. The volume’s innovative interdisciplinary approaches and engagement with the newest scholarly literature assure its broad appeal to students and teachers of Russian culture, and of comparative, and religious studies, and offer a new basis for exploration of this spiritually and culturally complex phenomenon"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Holy foolishness as a key to Russian culture / Svitlana Kobets; title: Lice in the iron cap: holy foolishness in perspective / A. M. Panchenko; title: Laughter as spectacle ; Holy foolishness in old Russia ; Holy foolishness as spectacle ; Holy foolishness as social protest / Priscilla Hunt; title: The fool and the king: the vita of Andrew of Constantinople and Russian urban holy foolishness / Cynthia M. Vakareliyska; title: Why there are so few holy fools in the medieval Bulgarian calendars of saints / Svitlana Kobets; title: Isaakii of the Kiev Monastery: an ascetic feigning madness or a madman-turned-saint? / Sergey Ivanov; title: Simeon of Iurievets and the hagiography of old Russian holy fools / Sergei Shtyrkov; title: The unmerry widow: the blessed Ksenia of Petersburg in hagiography and hymnography / N. Iu. Bubnov; title: The illustrations to the vita of Andrew of Constantinople in the tradition of Russian Old Believers / Svitlana Kobets; title: Manuscript illustrations to the eighteenth-century vita of Andrew of Constantinople in the Khilandar Library / Marco Sabbatini; title: The pathos of holy foolishness in Leningrad underground / Per-Arne Bodin; title: Holy foolishness and postmodern culture / Laura Piccolo; title: From stylization to parody: the paradigm of holy foolishness in contemporary Russian performance art.