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SLAVIC & EASTERN EUROPEAN STUDIES / LITERATURE & CRITICISM
“Colleen McQuillen establishes a rich context in which to consider
Russian modernism and the cultural practices and artistic tenets of its
adherents.”
—Olga Peters Hasty, Princeton University
Masked and costume balls thrived in Russia in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries during a period of rich literary and theatrical experimenta-
tion. The first study of its kind,
The Modernist Masquerade
examines the cultural
history of masquerades in Russia and their representations in influential literary
works.
The masquerade’s widespread appearance as a literary motif in works by such
writers as Anna Akhmatova, Leonid Andreev, Andrei Bely, Aleksandr Blok, and
Fyodor Sologub mirrored its popularity as a leisure-time activity and illumi-
nated its integral role in the Russian modernist creative consciousness. Colleen
McQuillen charts how the political, cultural, and personal significance of lavish
costumes and other forms of self-stylizing evolved in Russia over time. She shows
how their representations in literature engaged in dialog with the diverse aes-
thetic trends of Decadence, Symbolism, and Futurism and with the era’s artistic
philosophies.
Colleen McQuillen
is assistant professor in the Department of Slavic and Baltic
Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
A MELLON SLAVIC STUDIES INITIATIVE BOOK
This book is part of an initiative for publishing first books by scholars in the fields
of Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies, supported by the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation.
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
DECEMBER
LC: 2013015052 PG
224 PP. 6 × 9 32 B/W ILLUS.
E-BOOK $24.95 S ISBN 978-0-299-29613-1
“
Colleen McQuillen captures a
unique moment in late Imperial
Russian culture and politics, when
costuming, masquerading, and
dressing up was the rage among
writers, artists, performers, and
even terrorists. She considers
everything from high society and
popular culture to literature and the
antics of the Futurists. The book is a
pleasure to read and intellectually
stimulating as well. What a
delight.
”
—Jeffrey Brooks, author of
When Russia Learned to Read
Of re l at ed int e re s t
Edited by Olga Matich
“In their luminous and inspiring investiga-
tion into Petersburg as literary and urban
artifice, Matich and the other authors
uncover previously unexplored aspects
of the novel, paying special tribute to the
visual aspect of Bely’s writing.”—John E.
Bowlt, author of
Moscow & St. Petersburg
1900–1920
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 2010
LC 2010011538 DK 320 PP. 6 × 9
34 B/W ILLUS.
E-BOOK $19.95 S ISBN 978-0-299-23603-8
