Language and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Russia [Paperback]

Victor Zhivov's Language and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Russia is one of the most important studies ever published on eighteenth-century Russia. Historians and students of Russian culture agree that the creation of a Russian literary language was key to the formation of a modern secular culture, and this title traces the growth of a vernacular language from the hybrid Slavonic of the late seventeenth century through the debates between archaists and innovators of the early nineteenth century. Zhivov's study is an essential work on the genesis of modern Russian culture; the aim of this translation is to make it available to historians and students of the field.Translators Introduction. Preface to the English Edition. Introduction. Problems in the Prehistory of the New Type of Russian Literary Language.1. The Literary Language of the New Type as an Object of Social and Cultural History. 2. The Functional Reconceptualization of Genetically Heterogeneous Elements in the History of Russian Writing. 3. The Main Registers of the Bookish Language and the Processes of Their Formation. 4. The Reconceptualization of the Varieties of the Bookish Language. 5. Linguistic Simplicity and the Means of its Realization. 6. The Secularization of Culture, Its Specifics in Russia, and Its Significance for Rethinking Linguistic Usage. Chapter 1. The Petrine Language Reform; The Linguistic and Cultural Situation of the Petrine Era. 1. Tasks of the Language Reform and the Nature of its Realization. 1.1 The Reform of the Alphabet as the Prototype of Language Reform. 1.2 Petrine Linguistic Directives. 1.3 From Hybrid Church Slavonic to the Simple Russian Language. 1.4 Innovation and Continuity in the New Literary Language. 2. Language Policy and the Conflict of Cultures. 2.1 Language Reform and Political-Ecclesiastical Conflicts. 2.2 Simplicity and the Semiotic Functions of Civil Speech. Chapter 2. The Start of Normalization of the New Literary Language; The Formulation of Linguló¯