ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Imperial Sublime examines the rise of the Russian empire as a literary theme simultaneous with the evolution of Russian poetry between the 1730s and 1840—the century during which poets defined the main questions facing Russian literature and society. Harsha Ram shows how imperial ideology became implicated in an unexpectedly wide range of issues, from formal problems of genre, style, and lyric voice to the vexed relationship between the poet and the ruling monarch.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Harsha Ram is associate professor of Slavic languages and literature at the University of California, Berkeley.

REVIEWS

“Given its broad perspective and eloquent argument, Ram’s study of the confluent rise of the imperial sublime and the modern Russian poetic language should prove a vital resource for scholars of Russian history and poetics. . . . Ram breaks new ground in forging a synthesis of historical concern and poetic tradition. Essential.”—N. Tittler, Choice

"Harsha Ram pursues a pattern of poetic argumentation which he calls 'the imperial sublime' through Russian literary, cultural, and political history. The Imperial Sublime provides an original and persuasive illumination of the history of Russian poetry."—William Mills Todd III, Harvard University

“An excellent knowledge of specifically Russian and general European contexts, incisive textual analyses, and a very fine aesthetic sensibility make Ram's book an outstanding achievement."—Boris Gasparov, Columbia University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Sublime Beginnings

2. The Ode and the Empress

3. Sublime Dissent

4. Pushkin, Lermontov, and the Elegiac Sublime

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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