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In this highly original study, Omry Ronen critically examines the term "Silver Age", which over the years has gained such wide currency among historians and connoisseurs of twentieth-century Russian culture. The author traces the origin and the controversial development of what he condemns as an influential misnomer. "I do not know who was the first to use this appellation, on whom the blame for launching it falls", lamented the late Russian-American literary historian, Gleb Struve. Ronen sets out to debunk the idea that attributes invention of the term to Nikolai Berdiaev, and in turn traces this widely used catchword in the critical idiom from an obscure avant-garde manifesto to the present day. He convincingly lays to rest the use of a term that he sees as the most misleading constituent of Russia's contemporary cultural self-awareness and self-assessment.
List of contents
Introduction to the Series, Series Editor’s Foreword, Acknowledgments, 1 The Notion of the Russian Silver Age Today, 2 “The Parnassus of the Silver Age” or “the Second Russian Renaissance”? Sergei MakovskiiNilolai Berdiaev, 3 The Silver of Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Mandel’shtam, and Gumilev, 4 “The Silver Age” of Numbers, 5 Vladimir Piast’s Chronology and the Original Meaning of the Term “Silver Age of Russian Poetry”, 6 The Detractors of Postsymbolism: “Ippolit Udush’ev” and “Gleb Marev”, 7 The Adamantine Age, “the Golden Age in One’s Pocket,” and the Platinum Age, Notes, Literature, Index
About the author
Omry Ronen
Summary
In this study, Ronen critically examines the term "Silver Age", which over the years has gained such wide currency among historians and connoisseurs of 20th century Russian culture. The author traces the origin and the controversial development of what he condemns as an influential misnomer. Ronen sets out to debunk the myth that attributes invention of the term to Nikolai Berdiaev, and in turn traces this widely used catchword in the critical idiom from an abscure, avante-garde manifesto to the present day. He lays to rest the use of the term which he sees as the most misleading constituent of Russia's contemporary cultural self-awareness and self-assessment.
