Image for Reading Russian Fortunes : Print Culture, Gender and Divination in Russia from 1765

Reading Russian Fortunes : Print Culture, Gender and Divination in Russia from 1765

Part of the Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature series
See all formats and editions

Reading Russian Fortunes examines the huge popularity and cultural impact of fortune-telling among urban and literate Russians from the eighteenth century to the present.

Based partly on a study of the numerous editions of little fortune-telling books, especially those devoted to dream interpretation, it documents and analyses the social history of fortune-telling in terms of class and gender, at the same time considering the function of both amateur and professional fortune-telling in a literate modernizing society.

Chapters are devoted to professional fortune-tellers and their clients, and to the publishers of the books.

An analysis of the relationship between urban fortune-telling and traditional oral culture, where divination played a very significant role, leads on to a discussion of the underlying reasons for the persistence of fortune-telling in modern Russian society.

Read More
Available
£33.99 Save 15.00%
RRP £39.99
Add Line Customisation
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
Add to List
Product Details
Cambridge University Press
052102479X / 9780521024792
Paperback / softback
16/03/2006
United Kingdom
268 pages, 7 Halftones, unspecified
152 x 229 mm, 413 grams
Professional & Vocational Learn More