Title: The exotic prisoner in Russian romanticism
First published: 1997
Description: Besides new themes of alienation and desires for self-fulfillment, European Romanticism brought to Russian literature the congenial themes of captivity and exotic worlds. Between 1820 and 1840 there developed an enormous literature with hosts of prisoners in exotic locales in the Caucasus.

Loneliness and desire for freedom competed with elaborate descriptions of unknown peoples - Chechens, Georgians, Tatars and Circassians - to produce a literature of unparalleled brilliance, brought to a dazzling culmination by Lermontov's "Bela" in 1839. The exotic prisoner theme with its exotic trappings then disappears, leaving as its heritage the powerful themes of loneliness and introspection which other writers were subsequently to give their own unique treatment.
Subjects: History and criticism, Romanticism, Prisoners in literature, Russian literature, Russian literature, history and criticism, Romanticism, soviet union
Places: Russia
Time periods: 19th century
LC classification: PG3015.5.R6 A9 1997