Institutions of Russian Modernism: Conceptualization, Publication, and Reading of Symbolism

Symbolism became the first and central direction of Russian modernism, producing a real revolution in the literature and artistic life of Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. During the years of dominance of realistic prose, with its focus on reproducing life's truths, it was hard to imagine something more opposite to such literature than symbolist poetry. How did this transition occur? Why did Valery Bryusov and his projects play a leading role in the process of modernism's emergence in Russia? How was a new type of reader formed, and what significance did book covers have for the symbolist 'brand'? These questions were the focus of American literary scholar Jonathan Stone's attention. Addressing seemingly peripheral characters and phenomena (such as the poetry of Z. Fuks - one of Bryusov's literary masks), the author compares them with similar phenomena of Western European modernism and describes the complex process of institutionalizing Russian symbolism. Jonathan Stone is a literary historian, teaches at Franklin and Marshall College, and is the author of works on Alexander Blok, Valery Bryusov, and Mikhail Bakhtin.