From: "Aubrey L. Hicks" <[log in to unmask]>
Cornell University Press is proud to announce the publication of Russia and
Soul: An Exploration by Dale Pesmen.
This ethnography of everyday life in contemporary Russia is also an
examination of discourses and practices of "soul" or dusha. Russian soul
has historically appeared as a myth, a consoling fiction, and a trope of
national and individual self-definition that drew romantic foreigners to
Russia. Dale Pesmen shows that in the 1990s this "soul" was scorned,
worshipped, and used to create, manipulate, and exploit cultural capital.
Pesmen focuses on "soul" in part as what people chose to do and how they
did it, especially practices considered "definitive" of Russians, such as
hospitality, the use of alcoholic beverages, steam baths, Russian language,
music, and suffering. Attempting to avoid narrow definitions of soul as a
thing, Pesmen developed a new way of structuring ethnographic interviews.
During her stay in a formerly "closed" military industrial city and
surrounding villages, Pesmen spent time on public transportation and in
kitchens, steam baths, vegetable gardens, shops, and workplaces. She uses
stories from her fieldwork along with examples from the media and
literature to introduce a phenomenology of russkaia dusha and of related
American and other non-Russian metaphysical notions, exploring diverse
elements in their makeup, examining and questioning the world created when
people believe in the existence of such "deep," "vast," "enigmatic,"
"internal" centers. Among theoretical issues she addresses are those of
power, community, self, exchange, coherence, and morality. Pesmen's
attention to dusha gives her a multifaceted perspective on Russian culture
and society and informs her rich portrayal of life in a Russian city at a
historically critical moment.
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornellpress/cup3_catalog.taf?_function=
detail&Title_ID=3465
"This is the best book about Russia ever written. By using dusha as her
organizing principle, Dale Pesmen has captured what it is like to be
Russian and to live in Russia. Russia and Soul is so readable that when I
open it at any page I have difficulty putting it down. It is like a
mandala, drawing you into itself and causing you to contemplate the nature
of existence."--Victor A. Friedman, University of Chicago
"Dazzlingly original and penetratingly insightful, this is a volume of
singular erudition, bound to be a touchstone for all future studies of
Russian culture, society, philosophy, and literature. Dale Pesmen has
peered into the seeming cliché of Russian soul to reveal an intricate
cosmology, one that profoundly shapes social behavior and
self-creation."--Nancy Ries, Colgate University
Aubrey L. Hicks
Publicity & Sales Assistant
Cornell University Press
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