Fantastic Rus'. From Romantic Kikimoras to Slavic Cyberpunk. Slavic Myths and Folklore in Art and Popular Culture of the 18th–21st Centuries
Fantastic Rus'. From Romantic Kikimoras to Slavic Cyberpunk. Slavic Myths and Folklore in Art and Popular Culture of the 18th–21st Centuries
24.99 €
Have you ever wondered how Baba Yaga, Koschei the Deathless, and the epic heroes became heroes of Pushkin's fairy tales, Vasnetsov's paintings, Soviet fairy tale films, and, finally, iconic characters in games and comics?
"Fantastic Rus'" is the first comprehensive study of how Russian mythology was perceived in different eras and the forms it has taken in art and popular culture for centuries—from the first, and sometimes bizarre, attempts to reconstruct the Slavic pagan pantheon to modern fantasy interpretations of Rus' in books, comics, films, board games, and computer games.
You'll learn what people read in the 18th century instead of Slavic fantasy, why Tsar Saltan and Prince Gvidon from Pushkin's fairy tale have such strange, non-Slavic names, how Baba Yaga became a vampire and founded the Nosferatu clan, and what the epics about Lenin and Stalin look like. Trace how 19th-century poets and writers—Zhukovsky, Pushkin, and Gogol—transformed folklore characters into familiar literary heroes, while Vasnetsov and Bilibin created a visual canon of fairytale Rus' that remains ingrained in our imaginations.
Masterfully handling a vast amount of material and capturing vivid details, the author, historian Fyodor Panfilov, convincingly demonstrates that Russian mythology inspired and continues to inspire not only classical art, from Romantic literature to Diaghilev's Russian Seasons, but also popular culture, and that our past is an inexhaustible source for fantasies about the future.
This striking gift edition, featuring a collection of rare illustrations, is intended for anyone who loves history, mythology, art, and pop culture and wants to understand how myths continue to shape our cultural code. This is a long-awaited must-read for fantasy fans and authors, illustrators, gamers and game designers, researchers and creators of original universes.
"Fantastic Rus'" is the first comprehensive study of how Russian mythology was perceived in different eras and the forms it has taken in art and popular culture for centuries—from the first, and sometimes bizarre, attempts to reconstruct the Slavic pagan pantheon to modern fantasy interpretations of Rus' in books, comics, films, board games, and computer games.
You'll learn what people read in the 18th century instead of Slavic fantasy, why Tsar Saltan and Prince Gvidon from Pushkin's fairy tale have such strange, non-Slavic names, how Baba Yaga became a vampire and founded the Nosferatu clan, and what the epics about Lenin and Stalin look like. Trace how 19th-century poets and writers—Zhukovsky, Pushkin, and Gogol—transformed folklore characters into familiar literary heroes, while Vasnetsov and Bilibin created a visual canon of fairytale Rus' that remains ingrained in our imaginations.
Masterfully handling a vast amount of material and capturing vivid details, the author, historian Fyodor Panfilov, convincingly demonstrates that Russian mythology inspired and continues to inspire not only classical art, from Romantic literature to Diaghilev's Russian Seasons, but also popular culture, and that our past is an inexhaustible source for fantasies about the future.
This striking gift edition, featuring a collection of rare illustrations, is intended for anyone who loves history, mythology, art, and pop culture and wants to understand how myths continue to shape our cultural code. This is a long-awaited must-read for fantasy fans and authors, illustrators, gamers and game designers, researchers and creators of original universes.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series Russian DNA: Myths, Fairy Tales, and Epics