Beyond the Subject. Vienna Conference Papers

From Diaries to Blogs: Cultural and Political Networking in Russian Autobiographical Practice.

Authors

  • Tatiana Saburova Omsk State Pedagogical University
  • Natalia Rodigina Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5463/ejlw.4.99

Keywords:

Russian intelligentsia, diary, letter, blog

Abstract

We aim to reveal the transformations of the subject, structure, goals, and functions of autobiographical practice from diary to blog in Russia, its traditions and developments as a specific form of political and cultural networking. The proposed paper is based on the comparison of the diaries of Alexander Turgenev (1784-1845), historian and a journalist, and the blog of Boris Akunin (Georgii Chkhartishvili, 1956-), a writer, translator, historian. Turgenev’s diaries were published as “Chronicle of a Russian” in reputable literary magazines and political journals in the 1830-40s; they contributed to the formation of the intelligentsia and furthered cultural links between Russia and Europe. Akunin expresses his political views on his blog “Love of History”, posting autobiographical notes, travelogues, reflections, correspondence, and photographs. Juxtaposing the diary and blog promises to yield rich insights into Russian cultural practices over time.

 

This article was submitted to the European Journal of Life Writing in May 2014 and published on 16 March 2015.

Author Biographies

Tatiana Saburova, Omsk State Pedagogical University

Tatiana Saburova is a Professor of History at Omsk State Pedagogical University. She completed a higher doctorate in History in Omsk in 2006. Her monograph Mythologies of the Russian Intellectual World: Socio-Cultural Representations of the Russian Intelligentsia in the Nineteenth Century was published in 2005. She had a scholarship at DHI in Moscow (2012) and was a Visiting Scholar at Tübingen University (2013), Indiana University, USA (Fulbright, 2011) and the University of Freiburg (DAAD , 2010, 2012). Tatiana Saburova is a member of the Russian Society for Intellectual History, International Auto/Biography Association, and a member of the editorial board of “Avtobiografi Я” Journal on Life Writing and the Representation of the Self in Russian Culture (Padova University Press). Her current research focuses on the identities and strategies of behavior of the Russian intelligentsia in the Late Imperial Russia, generations and historical memory.

Natalia Rodigina, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University

Nataliya Rodigina is a Professor at the Department of Russian History, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Russia. Her higher doctorate was completed in 2006 on 'The Image of Siberia in Russian Journals in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century’ and was published as a monograph under the title Another Russia (2006). She is a member of Russian Society for Intellectual History, International Auto/Biography Association, and a member of the editorial board of “Avtobiografi Я” Journal on Life Writing and the Representation of the Self in Russian Culture (Padova University Press). Her research interests include life writing in the nineteenth and twentieth century Russia, the history of childhood and journalism in Russia. Nataliya Rodigina is also an affiliated researcher at the Tobolsk Science Station of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Published

2015-03-16

Issue

Vol. 4 (2015): EJLW

Section

Beyond the Subject. Vienna Conference Papers

Copyright (c) 2015 Tatiana Saburova, Natalia Rodigina

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