Febris Erotica: Lovesickness in the Russian Literary Imagination

by Valeria Sobol, Elena Kupriyanova (Translator)

Overview

The destructive power of obsessive love was a defining subject of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Russian literature. In Febris Erotica, Sobol argues that Russian writers were deeply preoccupied with the nature of romantic relationships and were persistent in their use of lovesickness not simply as a traditional theme but as a way to address pressing philosophical, ethical, and ideological concerns through a recognizable literary trope. Sobol examines stereotypes about the damaging effects of romantic love and offers a short history of the topos of lovesickness in Western literature and medicine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798887192499
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)
Language:	Russian

About the Author

Valeria Sobol is associate professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Illinois.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Note on Translation, Transliteration, and Abbreviations

Introduction: Cases in History

PART I / ANATOMY

1. The Anatomy of Feeling and the Mind-Body Problem in Russian Sentimentalism

PART II / DIAGNOSTICS

2. Diagnosing Love: Tradition

3. "Febris Erotica" in Herzen's Who Is to Blame?

4. An Ordinary Story: Goncharov's Romantic Patients

PART III / THERAPY

5. The "Question of the Soul" in the Age of Positivism

6. What Is to Be Done about a Lovesick Woman? Chernyshevsky's Treatment

7. From Lovesickness to Shamesickness: Tolstoy's Solution

Afterword

Notes

Works Cited

Index

What People are Saying About This

Ilya Vinitsky

"Febris Erotica is a fine, well—researched, and lucidly written examination of representations of lovesickness in eighteenth— and nineteenth century Russian literature, with a brief excursion into the seventeenth century."

Editorial Reviews

"One of the great contributions Sobol makes is her attention to the mutual influence of the languages of science and literature."

Lonny Harrison

"Throughout the book is well grounded in both Greek and early modern philosophy and in relevant psychological and medical theories of the 19th century."

Choice

"One of the book's key strengths, its full-blooded engagement with the scientific contexts that inform the (mostly) novels at hand, shows Sobol to be of the best sort of humanities scholar, not fighting shy of the 'extraneous' intellectual matter that underpins creative praxis."

Slavonic and East European Review - B.D. Morgan

"In this book, Valeria Sobol takes a well known fact—that 'lovesickness' plays a significant role in the Russian literary imagination— and makes it the nexus of a fertile study with stunning depth and breadth. . . . The book is so rich and full of information, and written in such clear and masterful prose. . . come away with understanding Russian literary culture in new and profound ways."

The Russian Review

"One of the great contributions Sobol makes is her attention to the mutual influence of the languages of science and literature."—Lonny Harrison, Canadian Slavonic Papers, Summer 2011

"One of the book's key strengths, its full-blooded engagement with the scientific contexts that inform the (mostly) novels at hand, shows Sobol to be of the best sort of humanities scholar, not fighting shy of the 'extraneous' intellectual matter that underpins creative praxis."—B.D. Morgan, Slavonic and East European Review, October 2011

"In this excellent study, Valeria Sobol explains its [lovesickness] central importance first in the west (starting with ancient Greek culture), and then in different Russian literary movements from its entrance into Russia in the Petrine period….The book alternates between close textual analysis and literary history so as to situate each text and author within a mostly vanished past."—Slavic Review

"In this book, Valeria Sobol takes a well known fact—that 'lovesickness' plays a significant role in the Russian literary imagination— and makes it the nexus of a fertile study with stunning depth and breadth. . . . The book is so rich and full of information, and written in such clear and masterful prose. . . come away with understanding Russian literary culture in new and profound ways."—The Russian Review

"Throughout the book is well grounded in both Greek and early modern philosophy and in relevant psychological and medical theories of the 19th century."—Choice

From the Publisher