A History of Russian Women's Writing, 1820-1992

Russian women's writing is now attracting great interest both in the West and in Russia itself.

This is the first one-volume history of the subject to appear in any language in modern times.

Written from a feminist perspective, the book combines a broad historical survey with close textual analysis.

Sections on women's writing in the periods 1820-1880, 1881-1917, 1917-1954 and 1953-1992 are followed by essays on individual writers.

Drawing on a wide range of sources, including rare literary journals and almanacs, Catriona Kelly's account shows familiar figures such as Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva and Tolstoya in a radical new context, and brings to light a gallery of fascinating but neglected writers including Elena Gan, Nadezhda Teffi, Natalya Baranskaya, and Nina Sadur.

The text is supported by quotations from the Russian, all with English translations.

Complemented by Dr Kelly's "Anthology of Russian Women's Writing 1777-1992" (also available from OUP), this is a source for readers and students of women's writing, and for all those concerned with women's history, the history of feminism and Russian literature in general. Catriona Kelly is the author of "Petrushka: The Russian Carnival Puppet Theatre", editor of "Discontinuous Discourses in Modern Russian Literature" (with Michael Makin and David Shepherd), and has translated Leonid Borodin's "The Third Truth" and Sergei Kaledin's "The Humble Cemetery".