Description
Reading Russian Fortunes
Print Culture, Gender and Divination in Russia from 1765
Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature Series
Author: Wigzell Faith
The first examination of the cultural impact of fortune-telling in Russia from the eighteenth century to the present.
Language: English
Publication date: 03-2006
268 p. · 15.2x22.9 cm · Paperback
268 p. · 15.2x22.9 cm · Paperback
Description
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Reading Russian Fortunes examines the huge popularity and cultural impact of fortune-telling among urban and literate Russians from the eighteenth century to the present. Based partly on a study of the numerous editions of little fortune-telling books, especially those devoted to dream interpretation, it documents and analyses the social history of fortune-telling in terms of class and gender, at the same time considering the function of both amateur and professional fortune-telling in a literate modernizing society. Chapters are devoted to professional fortune-tellers and their clients, and to the publishers of the books. An analysis of the relationship between urban fortune-telling and traditional oral culture, where divination played a very significant role, leads on to a discussion of the underlying reasons for the persistence of fortune-telling in modern Russian society.
Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Dreambooks and other fortune-telling guides; 2. Divination in Russian traditional culture; 3. Readers and detractors; 4. Printers and publishers; 5. Women, men and domestic fortune-telling; 6. Fortune-tellers and their clientele; 7. Sages and prophets; 8. Disappearance and revival; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
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