This Meager Nature by Christopher Ely HARDBACK 9780875803036

This Meager NatureLandscape and National Identity in Imperial Russia\nAuthor(s): Christopher Ely\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cornell University Press, United States\nImprint: Northern Illinois University Press\nISBN-13: 9780875803036, 978-0875803036\nSynopsis\nBoundless Russia, humble yet full of hidden grandeursuch visions of \""the motherland\"" became crucial markers of Russian national identity. This Meager Nature is the first full-length study to trace the cultural construction of Russia's landscape during the nineteenth century, showing how artistic and literary representations of nature reflected and shaped Russians' ideas about themselves and their nation.\n\n In the early 1800s, Russians commonly accepted the European judgment that their land lacked aesthetic value. That view changed with the outpouring of literary and artistic creativity that followed the century's political upheavals. Artists such as Aleksei Savrasov, Fedor Vasil'ev, Ivan Shishkin, and Nikolai Nekrasov tur.