Abstract
This digital humanities project explores the role and representation of fashion in A. Pushkin’s novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin (1823-1831) and aims to showcase the visual potential of the canonical literary text to future readers, by linking the original Russian citations and corresponding English translations with a pictorial gallery of textual references and cross-cultural glossary of Russian and French fashion terms. Implementing interdisciplinary modes of critical reasoning through the dialogical examination of the interlinked narratives of Pushkin’s novel itself and fashion-related visual artifacts (paintings, drawings, costume, etc.), this project utilizes the literary criticism methods within a broader framework of cultural semiotics, fashion studies, art and design history, archival research, and digital humanities. Specifically, archival aquarelles from Hillwood Museum’s Middleton Album, painted by Middleton’s daughter at the time of his service as an American diplomat in 1820s Russia, are used to interpret the evolution of fashion trends found in the text, from the Neo-Classical era to the Romantic period. Uncovering interdependences between literary characters and their dress choices accentuated by seminal poet but often ‘lost’ in translation, we argue that such re-creation of ‘fashionability through clothing’ is critical for construction of characters’ identities in Pushkin’s novel. Through close examination of its Western-European fashion patterns - from Paris to London – this interactive digital guide reveals the sociocultural, ideological, linguistic, and literary significance of ‘fashionable imagery’ in Pushkin’s masterpiece, promising to stimulate a digitized museum environment as a critical form of knowledge within a specified literary landscape, and thus proposing new directions for humanities studies.
Presenters
Elizabeth La FaveStudent, PhD Student, East Carolina University, North Carolina, United States Elena Murenina
Associate Professor (PhD)/Director of Russian Studies Program, Foreign Languages & Literatures Department, East Carolina University, North Carolina, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Nineteenth-Century Novel, Digital Humanities, Fashion, Identity, Reception, Eugene Onegin
