Summary
Economic and national questions often go hand in hand in Leskov’s work, and their combination makes one of the author’s strategies particularly apparent: In the economic actions of his characters, he takes the rivalry of the nations to the point of absurdity. But work and economics, commerce and craftsmanship also permeate Leskov’s texts from within: Writing itself is an economic proposition. The paper presents Leskov’s narrative economies with particular reference to his stories Skaz o Tul’skom kosom Levshe i o stal’noi blokhe and Zheleznaia volia. Unlike the majority of his contemporaries, Leskov gives prominence to the Russian “third estate” – craftsmen, merchants and small businessmen – yet he also questions the morality of the market, expresses scepticism regarding the burgeoning industrialisation in Russia, and criticises political interference in economic processes.
Acknowledgement
This article was written in spring 2016 during my research fellowship at the Davis Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. I am extremely grateful for the fantastic working conditions and the inspiration afforded by the Davis Center, the Slavic department, the Widener Library, and Harvard University in general.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Aufsätze
- Nikolai Leskov’s national economies: An investigation of work and commerce
- Der russische Kohlhaas? A. V. Suchovo-Kobylin unter Verdacht
- Das mythologische Bild des Teufels als Pflüger in der slawischen mündlichen Volksliteratur
- Arguments against ‘The Executed Renaissance’
- Brückners Höflichkeitskonzept (1916): Linguistik oder Ideologie?
- Between Glamorous Patriotism and Reality-TV Aesthetics: Political Communication, Popular Culture, and the Invective Turn in Trump’s United States and Putin’s Russia
- Tagungsberichte
- Tagungsbericht zum 25. JungslavistInnen-Treffen
- Tagungsbericht zur Internationalen Konferenz Linguistik als diskursive Schnittstelle zwischen Recht, Politik und Konflikt
- Buchbesprechungen
- Die weißrussische und die russische Sprache in ihrem Verhältnis zur weißrussischen Gesellschaft und Nation
- Technologien der Seele
- Kunsturteile
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Aufsätze
- Nikolai Leskov’s national economies: An investigation of work and commerce
- Der russische Kohlhaas? A. V. Suchovo-Kobylin unter Verdacht
- Das mythologische Bild des Teufels als Pflüger in der slawischen mündlichen Volksliteratur
- Arguments against ‘The Executed Renaissance’
- Brückners Höflichkeitskonzept (1916): Linguistik oder Ideologie?
- Between Glamorous Patriotism and Reality-TV Aesthetics: Political Communication, Popular Culture, and the Invective Turn in Trump’s United States and Putin’s Russia
- Tagungsberichte
- Tagungsbericht zum 25. JungslavistInnen-Treffen
- Tagungsbericht zur Internationalen Konferenz Linguistik als diskursive Schnittstelle zwischen Recht, Politik und Konflikt
- Buchbesprechungen
- Die weißrussische und die russische Sprache in ihrem Verhältnis zur weißrussischen Gesellschaft und Nation
- Technologien der Seele
- Kunsturteile