Copyright
Anita FrisonPublished On
2026-02-19ISBN
Language
- English
Print Length
364 pages (xii+352)Dimensions
Weight
Media
OCLC Number
1574660843LCCN
2025432284THEMA
- NHH
- 3MN
- NHTB
- NHTQ
BISAC
- HIS032020
- HIS001000
- HIS054000
- HIS035000
LCC
- DK189.2
Keywords
- Russian Imperial Culture
- Africa
- National identity
- Representation
- Postcolonial Studies
Africa in Russian Imperial Culture
Race, Empire, and Representation (1850-1917)
This volume uncovers how Sub-Saharan Africa was imagined in Russian culture from 1850 to 1917. Drawing on travelogues, ethnographic studies, fiction, and museum collections, Anita Frison reveals how Russia—though lacking formal colonies in Africa—nonetheless engaged deeply with Western colonial discourse.
Organized around themes of Strangers, Lands, Bodies, Collectors, and Disguises, the book explores how Russians represented African peoples, landscapes, and artifacts to negotiate questions of race, empire, and national identity. Challenging the notion of Russian ‘exceptionalism’, this book demonstrates that imperial attitudes toward Africa often prefigured Soviet anticolonial rhetoric, whilst simultaneously relying on the colonial paradigm.
Richly documented and interdisciplinary, this study offers fresh insights for scholars of history, literature, and postcolonial studies, while remaining accessible to curious general readers.
Endorsements
Its depth of detailed narrative and analysis about Russian travelers to Africa, the purpose and provenance of resulting literature and ethnographic collections, and the emergence of related museums makes this book uniquely valuable for specialists, while its quality of writing also renders accessible to curious nonspecialists its main story line regarding how Russian Imperial culture compared with its Western counterparts regarding Black Africa.
Allison Blakely
Professor of European and Comparative History Emeritus, Boston University
Additional Resources
A blog post by the author about the book.
Contents
Introduction
(pp. 1–10)- Anita Frison
Strangers. Russians Discover Black Africa
(pp. 11–64)- Anita Frison
- Anita Frison
Bodies. Black People under Russian Scrutiny
(pp. 113–186)- Anita Frison
Collectors. African Material Culture on Display
(pp. 187–244)- Anita Frison
Disguises. Black Africa at the Service of the Arts
(pp. 245–300)- Anita Frison
Conclusion
(pp. 301–306)- Anita Frison
Contributors
Anita Frison
(author)Anita Frison holds a PhD in Linguistic, Philological and Literary Studies from the University of Padua. She has since taught Russian literature at the universities of Urbino, Macerata, Venice and Padua, publishing scientific articles and edited volumes As the PI of a Stars@Unipd grant (https://www.unipd.it/en/stars), she led the project ‘AfTeR – The African Text: Representing Africa in Imperial Russia (1850-1917)’. Her research interests include Russian literature and culture (19th-early 20th century), Russo-African relations, the Russian Empire and its entanglements, Semiotics, Postcolonial Theory, and Cultural Studies. She is the co-editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal eSamizdat (www.esamizdat.it). Orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1712-3341