Masks of the Empress: polyphony of personae in Catherine the Great's 'Oh, These Times!' (Empress of Russia's first play)(Drama and Opera of the Enlightenment)
Article Abstract:
The Russian empress Catherine II was a prolific author as well as an enlightened ruler. Her first play 'Oh, These Times!,' which was written anonymously in 1772, reflects her penchant for creating a multiplicity of characters to portray her own social, political and religious views. The play allowed her to satirize the social actions and ideas that she opposed, while skillfully maneuvering her audience to accept and support her own opinions on such issues as superstition, education and religious hypocrisy. Anonymity enabled her to have her own viewpoints argued solely on their merits.
Publication Name: Comparative Drama
Subject: Literature/writing
ISSN: 0010-4078
Year: 1997
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The masks of cupid and death
Article Abstract:
The figures of Eros and death were frequently portrayed together in renaissance representations to show the similarity of their actions on human nature. Emblem books showed graphic representations of these contrasting figures accompanied by small fables that narrate how they cause suffering or joy at random by accidental exchanges of arrows. The combination of cupid and death may be derived from the myth of Proserpina, the Greek goddess of spring who was carried off by the god of the underworld to be his wife.
Publication Name: Comparative Drama
Subject: Literature/writing
ISSN: 0010-4078
Year: 1995
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From fat Falstaff to Francophile fop: Russian nationalism in Catherine the Great's 'Merry Wives'
Article Abstract:
The author discusses the social, cultural and political implications of Catherine the Great's selection of Shakespeare as the source of her aesthetic influence. This marked a movement of Russian culture towards a more English influence of fashion, language and literature, away from the former dominance of French culture. Catherine's neoclassical comedies, however, were very much stylistically French.
Publication Name: Comparative Drama
Subject: Literature/writing
ISSN: 0010-4078
Year: 1999
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