The Visual Dominant in Eighteenth-century Russia
Marcus C. Levitt
The Enlightenment privileged vision as the principle means of understanding the world, but the eighteenth-century Russian preoccupation with sight was not merely a Western import. In his masterful study, Levitt shows the visual to have had deep indigenous roots in Russian Orthodox culture and theology, arguing that the visual played a crucial role in the formation of early modern Russian culture and identity.
Levitt traces the early modern Russian quest for visibility from jubilant self-discovery, to serious reflexivity, to anxiety and crisis. The book examines verbal constructs of sight—in poetry, drama, philosophy, theology, essay, memoir—that provide evidence for understanding the ... Read more
Works that have considered the intersections of Russian literature and the visual in recent years have dealt almost exclusively with the modern period or with icons. The Visual Dominant in Eighteenth-Century Russia is an important addition to the scholarship and will be of major interest to scholars and students of Russian literature, culture, and religion, and specialists on the Enlightenment.
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About Marcus C. Levitt
Reviews for The Visual Dominant in Eighteenth-century Russia
Slavonic and East European Review
Levitt puts forth a fascinating and highly original thesis concerning the centrality of visual motifs in Russia's Enlightenment culture. I found the discussion of Orthodox theology and the ways it echoed in eighteenth-century literature to be innovative, intellectually stimulating, and persuasive.
Elise Kimerling Wirtschafter, California State Polytechnic University ... Read more