 |
Les médiatrices de la littérature russe. Le XIXe siècle
Ce volume passe en revue les différentes fonctions de médiation occupées par des femmes, entre sphère publique et privée, dans la Russie du XIXe siècle. Il illustre la façon dont ces dernières étaient perçues par leurs pairs et dont elles se construisaient un rôle, en conformité ou non avec les attentes liées à leur genre. Cet ouvrage propose un regard non androcentré sur l’histoire littéraire russe. Ce faisant, il rend hommage à ces femmes, souvent oubliées, qui ont grandement contribué à « l’âge d’or » de la littérature russe.
1. Préface
Le volume que nous proposons ici à l'attention des universitaires et plus généralement de toutes celles et ceux qui s'intéressent à la culture russe est à la fois une collection d'études consacrées aux médiatrices — traductrices, hôtesses de salon, éditrices, rédactrices en chef, membres des comités de rédaction, critiques, journalistes, correctrices, auxquelles on peut ajouter les préceptrices ou les enseignantes — et un hommage collectif à ces « petites mains » toujours négligées, parfois anonymes, qui ont pourtant participé pleinement à la construction de la littérature classique russe du XIXe siècle et de sa future historiographie.
2. Les médiatrices de la littérature russe : évolution du paradigme au XIXe siècle
In the first part of the article, the author corrects the traditional understanding of the term “mediator” applied to the literary sphere, offering a new definition which allows to distinguish between several levels of mediation in the literary field and present a complete paradigm of women’s mediating roles: publishers; editors; translators; literary critics; patrons; hostesses of artistic, literary and socio-literary salons; mothers, wives, widows and other female relatives of writers; mistresses; pupils and muses; memoirists; diarists; and prototypes of literary heroines. Besides, this part substantiates the dynamism of these roles and justifies the choice of two types of sources (ego-texts and bibliographic reference editions) chosen for the analysis of their genesis and evolution in literary history. The second part is devoted to the description and semantic-statistical analysis of eight ego-texts ( four male and four female ones), revealing a number of constants in the formation of the female mediator paradigm in nineteenth-century Russian literature. The third part presents a detailed hermeneutic and semiotic analysis of two women’s ego-texts (Avdotia Panaeva’s and Elena Stackenschneider’s) which illustrate the mechanisms of formation and functioning of women’s mediating roles and their actualization in memoirs and diaries. The article ends with general conclusions defining the specificities of the evolution of women mediators’ roles in […]
3. Les « femmes de… » : médiatrices ou autrices ?
Often ignored by traditional hermeneutics and literary history, the question of mediation has been addressed by the sociology of literature, and more particularly by the interactionism put forward by Howard Becker in his 1982 book Art Worlds, which frames the artistic or literary work as the result of a collective and collaborative action. At the intersection of interactionism and gender studies, my paper focuses on female (but also male) mediation within the regime of couples where both members are writers. The relationship of effective and symbolic subordination that marks the «wives of…”, or “women in the shadow of great men”, is perceptible from the first publications of womenin Russia, in 1759, and continues throughout the century, up to the emblematic caseof Sofia Tolstaya, whose literary (non-)reception remains to this day determined by ahorizon of expectation inseparable from the posterity of Tolstoy’s works. Pavel Basinskyand Ekaterina Barbanyaga’s book Sonya, go away! (“Соня, уйди! Софья Толстая:взгляд мужчины и женщины. Роман-диалог”) shows how difficult it is even today fora female author to be seen as anything other than a cultural mediator - and sometimesin the worst sense of the word - within the system of literary value production.
4. Éditrices et rédactrices en chef de la presse périodique russophone dans la Russie du XIXe siècle : étude préliminaire
The participation of women in the development of periodicals in 19th-century Russia has not been ignored by researchers. Many works were devoted to this subject at the turn of the 21st century. However, only a tiny minority were specifically dedicated to female publishers and editors-in-chief. The purpose of our research is to give an overview of the matter, presenting the most complete list possible of pre-1890 women editors and publishers of periodicals in Russia, to examine the dynamics of the evolution of the number of publisher and editor-in-chief positions that they occupied, and to analyse the diachronic aspect of the periodicals’ geographical distribution. In addition, the question of the typology of periodicals is raised and a first attempt is made to assess the impact of women publishers and editors-in-chief of periodicals on the literary process in 19th-century Russia.
5. « Je ne mérite ni moquerie ni mépris » : statut professionnel des femmes dans le monde du journalisme à travers leurs ego-documents (seconde moitié du XIXe siècle)
This article explores the perception of the professional status of Russian female journalists in the second half of the 19th century. The main sources are ego-documents of women at periodicals working during the period under study, as well as those who identified as journalists. One of the most frequent elements of the analysed memoir texts is the expression of the need to work at periodicals for material support and self-fulfilment. Most female journalists saw their labour as an option to serve society and were ready to make sacrifices for the cause. They emphasized respect and the value of their work in the eyes of their colleagues, ridiculing and denouncing cases of gender discrimination. Women’s limited access to higher education stands out as a significant issue in the ego-documents.
6. Natalia Golovkina et la médiation culturelle franco-russe: Destin d’un roman épistolaire féminin dans la littérature russe du XIXe siècle
It is generally admitted that the epistolary novel genre does not exist in Russian romantic and pre-romantic literature. As the exception to prove the rule, the novel The Letters of Ernest and Doravra (1766) by Fyodor Emin, an emigrant of uncertain origin who arrived in Russia in 1761, is sometimes mentioned. Natalia Golovkina’s Elisabeth de S***, or the History of a Russian girl narrated by one of her compatriots , which appeared in its original French version in Paris in 1802 and in Russian in Moscow in 1803-1804, is cited even more rarely and always as an example of a weak or insignificant work. In the context of the recent revaluation of the place of women in Russian literary history, this opinion hardly seems justified. Among the Russian fiction of the 1800s, Golovkina’s novel stands out for its innovative character. First, Elisabeth de S*** is an original example of Franco-Russian cultural mediation: the writer created a novel about Russian life based on French (and European) literary models and published it in two different countries. Golovkina’s work is also characterized by an interest in the psychology of her characters and in the evolution of love. Finally, it is a vast novel (some 600 pages), remarkable for its complex plot and the number of characters. In paying tribute to this unjustly forgotten writer, we will seek to understand why her work did not become part of the Russian literary canon.
7. Les cousines Bournachev et Élizavéta Kulmann
The Burnashev cousins distinguished themselves in several types of activities accessible to female members of the educated social classes of the mid-19th century. Sofia (1820-1883) published the journal The Leisure Hour and children’s books, while Ekaterina (1819-1875) and Maria (1817-1861) worked as teachers and translators. For them, the ideal female figure was Elizaveta Kulmann (1808-1825), a talented translator and poet who died prematurely. The cult of this young genius was supported by her teacher, Karl Friedrich von Großheinrich, who wrote a biography of Kulmann, translated by the Burnashevs from german to russian. The image of the young poetessbelongs to the culture of Romanticism, while the cousins were active in the era of the great reforms in women’s education. Kulmann’s biography as a creative personality who did not challenge the foundations of patriarchy and the gender canon was used by the Burnashev cousins to defend their conservative position on women’s issues.
8. Élizavéta Akhmatova : un grand nom oublié de la culture russe ?
The paper focuses on Elizaveta Akhmatova (1820-1904) – translator, editor and writer, the “first pioneer”, in her own words, of women’s literary work. The purpose of this research was to describe the conditions for entry into the profession (translation, publishing, writing), to present the results of her editorial activity (published periodicals), and to look at the reception of Akhmatova’s work by her contemporaries
9. Anna Engelhardt (1835-1903) : éditrice, traductrice, critique littéraire et plus encore
This article presents Anna Engelhardt, a woman virtually unknown in France and little studied in Russia, despite her important role in her country’s social and cultural life in the 19th century. She was a writer, translator, editor, literary critic and much more besides. Born in St Petersburg in 1838, she learned several foreign languages from an early age, including French and English. She introduced Russian readers to the works of Émile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, François Rabelais, George Elliot and Louisa May Alcott. She produced the first translations of several works by J.-J. Rousseau, V. Hugo, G. Flaubert and H. Heine. She was also the author (or co-author) of an imposing German-Russian dictionary in two volumes, published in 1877. The article focuses in particular on her close links with Zola and her interpretation of Rabelais, to whom she attributed a special place. It is based on documents held by the Central State Archive of Literature and Art in St Petersburg and the Manuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature.
10. Liste des éditrices et rédactrices en chef de la presse périodique russophone dans l’Empire russe, 1763-1890
Cette liste recense les éditrices et rédactrices en chef de la presse périodique russophone dans l'Empire russe de 1763 à 1890. Chaque notice comporte dans sa première partie des données biographiques suivies d'une brève énumération des activités liées à la production et la médiation littéraires. La deuxième partie des notices est dédiée aux activités d'éditrice et de rédactrice en chef : y sont précisés la période pendant laquelle ces activités ont été pratiquées, les titres des périodiques concernés, la fréquence et le lieu de leur parution.