Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale

Laura Engelstein

Published by Cornell University Press 2003

Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom

A Russian Folktale

Laura Engelstein

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501734243

Overview
Contents

About this book

Of the many sects that broke from the official Russian Orthodox church in the eighteenth century, one was universally despised. Its members were peasants from the Russian heartland skilled in the arts of animal husbandry who turned their knives on...

Author / Editor information

Laura Engelstein is Henry S. McNeil Professor of History at Yale University. She is author of The Keys to Happiness: Sex and the Search for Modernity in Fin-de-Si'cle Russia and coeditor, with Stephanie Sandler, of Self and Story in Russian History, both from Cornell.

Reviews

David Ransel, Indiana University:

This book tells a fascinating story of the most stigmatized religious dissidents in Russia and, in doing so, illuminates important current debates on identity, group solidarity, the maintenance of cultural boundaries and norms, and the consequences of social and cultural transgression. Laura Engelstein's authorial voice, thorough contextualization of her sources, and framing of her arguments leave no doubt about her mastery of the issues driving the most fruitful social and literary theory.

Jasper Griffin:

Scholarly and unsensational.... Ms. Engelstein presents us with some remarkable pictures.

Richard C. Trexler, Binghamton University:

Laura Engelstein's Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom adds significantly to the literature on Russian sects and to the field of sociosexual behavior. Exploiting unique Russian judicial sources, she gives us these sectarians in their own words as they move from secrecy in the early nineteenth century to self-advertisement in the early twentieth century. Engelstein's tales form a lush tapestry of a traditional sect awkwardly coming to terms with modernity.

Laura Engelstein has written a masterful and engaging history of the Skoptsy, the strangest Russian sectarian group in the modern era.... Engelstein lifts the mystery surrounding this group by taking her readers inside the minds of believers who mutilated their bodies for the sake of eternal salvation.... The book is well written, at times reading like a Russian folktale.... Overall, this study makes an important contribution to our knowledge of Russian religious history. It also is a fine example of the application of cutting-edge historical methods on society, literature, and culture to religious history.

Sander L. Gilman:

Laura Engelstein has produced a rather spectacular second book on sex in Russia.... Engelstein's new book on the topic of sex in Russia is much more complex and much more likely to be entered into the ranks of required books for all student of history.... It is an extraordinary account of the 'archive' that she mines in order to tell their history.... Cornell University Press is to be commended for designing this book so that the images and the text work elegantly together.

Dan Healey:

This is a remarkable book about a remarkably extreme group of people.... Engelstein's account of the Skoptsy encounter with modernity is robust and sure-footed.

Irina Korovushkina Paert:

Engelstein's interpretation of the Skoptsy phenomenon is intellectually evocative but hardly exhaustive.... The book can be recommended for graduate courses on cultural and social history of Russia.... It is free from the esoteric jargon of many cultural histories.

Barbara Alpern Engel:

Engelstein is a shrewd and perceptive interpreter of the Skoptsy story.... A substantial contribution to the study of Russian history and culture,... the book is also a meditation on the human condition and the human search for meaning.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
Terms and Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	XVII
Introduction: The Archives of Eternity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Myths and Mysteries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. Reports and Revelations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
3. Boundaries and Betrayals Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
4. Testimony of Faith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
5. Light and Shadow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 304
Illustrations
- Other: 30 halftones, 8 drawings, 1 color illustration
Keywords: History; Soviet & East European History

eBook

Published: September 5, 2018
ISBN: 9781501734243