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Please see the Table of Contents instead. This volume is nearing completion and is to come out with Indiana University Press in 2018.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Translation Studies, Makeup and Cosmetics, Visual Communication, Neoliberalism, Postfeminism, and 15 moreConstructions of femininity, Culture in the Soviet Union, Maxim Gorky, Women's Magazines, Sex Education, Glamour, Spice Girls, Misogyny, Wisława Szymborska, Advice literature, Fitness Programs, Standards of Beauty, Music of the 1990s, Helen Gurley Brown, and Socialist Poland
Research Interests:
The article examines the temporalizing rhetorical devices used in water cure manuals of the 1840s. Following in the footsteps of Johannes Fabian, temporalization is understood as referring to a plethora of ways in which relations of time... more
The article examines the temporalizing rhetorical devices used in water cure manuals of the 1840s. Following in the footsteps of Johannes Fabian, temporalization is understood as referring to a plethora of ways in which relations of time can be constructed in a text. Often rather than not, these relations place the modern self in opposition to ‘archaic’ Others. The cold water cure, an alternative treatment mode that gained popularity in Europe and the USA in the first half of the nineteenth century, saw its Other above all in the official medicine of the era. The latter’s therapeutic staples – bleeding the patient and administering medicaments including mercury compounds – were described in water cure brochures as ‘medieval’ or ‘barbaric’ methods. The authors of hydropathic manuals also saw their progressive values as in opposition to those of illiterate peasants, with whom the cold water cure reportedly originated. The article focuses on the contradictory temporality ascribed to water cure, which was relegated to the past through associations with both Classical antiquity (Hippocratic humoral medicine) and peasant culture, portrayed as all but ‘prehistoric’, but at the same time it is in water cure that hopes for a better medical future lay, according to
the authors of manuals. This paradoxical entangling of the up-to-date and the
archaic is discussed as a characteristic feature of western modernity, which tends
to produce the ‘old’ as a potential source of the ‘new’. A special emphasis is placed
on representations of the ‘father’ of the cold water cure, Vincenz Priessnitz and
the way his ideas are interpreted in his followers’ texts.
the authors of manuals. This paradoxical entangling of the up-to-date and the
archaic is discussed as a characteristic feature of western modernity, which tends
to produce the ‘old’ as a potential source of the ‘new’. A special emphasis is placed
on representations of the ‘father’ of the cold water cure, Vincenz Priessnitz and
the way his ideas are interpreted in his followers’ texts.
Research Interests: Modernity, Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau, Eric Hobsbawm, Hippocrates, and 14 moreTemporality, Vaccination, Alternative Medicine, Peasant History, Aleida Assmann, Johannes Fabian, Nikolai Gogol, Humoral Theory, Roy Porter, Vincenz Prießnitz, Edward Jenner, cold water cure, popular health movement, and Sophie Gay
The article discusses new (and not so new) ideas on femininity in Russia of the 1990s, looking primarily on the early Russian issues of Cosmopolitan and Russian lifestyle magazines OM and Ptyuch
Research Interests: Popular Culture, Modernization, Makeup and Cosmetics, Constructions of femininity, Photography (Visual Studies), and 11 moreMaxim Gorky, Women's Magazines, Glamour, Post-Soviet Transformation, Spice Girls, Wisława Szymborska, State-socialist Poland, Language of Advertisement, MTV Awards, late Soviet society, and Helen Gurley Brown
In her paper, Gusarova looks at some of the key topics of fashion journalism during the pandemic. COVID-19 became a catalyst for a whole range of trends already present in debates on sustainable development and social inclusion. Even... more
In her paper, Gusarova looks at some of the key topics of fashion journalism during the pandemic. COVID-19 became a catalyst for a whole range of trends already present in debates on sustainable development and social inclusion. Even before the pandemic with its closure of non-essential shops, fashion magazines wrote of the importance of “falling in love” again with one’s existing wardrobe. During the quarantine, this ability took on enormous importance.
A striking example of inclusion in fashion of traditionally excluded social groups was the July issue of British Vogue, which featured key workers—a supermarket assistant, midwife and train driver, on the cover. Gusarova examines this example within the context of the traditions of fashion journalism, fashion blogging and the canons of visual representation and reporting in social and political publications, looking, for instance, at other unusual Vogue covers seen as signs of the times.
Bearing in mind the economic and ideological functions of a magazine such as Vogue, gestures such as the recent cover, Gusarova argues, will inevitably encounter certain limitations due to the inertia of the format itself. As an alternative look at potential paths for the development of fashion journalism outside corporate standards, Gusarova examines the “people’s” covers designed by social media users as part of the #VogueChallenge.
A striking example of inclusion in fashion of traditionally excluded social groups was the July issue of British Vogue, which featured key workers—a supermarket assistant, midwife and train driver, on the cover. Gusarova examines this example within the context of the traditions of fashion journalism, fashion blogging and the canons of visual representation and reporting in social and political publications, looking, for instance, at other unusual Vogue covers seen as signs of the times.
Bearing in mind the economic and ideological functions of a magazine such as Vogue, gestures such as the recent cover, Gusarova argues, will inevitably encounter certain limitations due to the inertia of the format itself. As an alternative look at potential paths for the development of fashion journalism outside corporate standards, Gusarova examines the “people’s” covers designed by social media users as part of the #VogueChallenge.
Research Interests: Fashion Photography, Roland Barthes, Social Media, Pierre Bourdieu, Everyday Racism, and 15 moreSocial Inclusion, Fashion Blogs, Symbolic Capital, Glamour, Fashion Journalism, Fast Fashion, Santiago Sierra, Harper's Bazaar, Consumerism vs Sustainability, Trickle-down Theory, Street Fashion Culture, US Vogue Magazine, Black Lives Matter, British Vogue, and Greta Thunberg
The article examines Edward Linley Sambourne’s cartoon series ‘Mr. Punch’s Designs After Nature’ which appeared in Punch from the late 1860s onwards. The images show women morphing into animals and birds, or wearing them as exaggerated... more
The article examines Edward Linley Sambourne’s cartoon series ‘Mr. Punch’s Designs After Nature’ which appeared in Punch from the late 1860s onwards. The images show women morphing into animals and birds, or wearing them as exaggerated forms of decoration. Some of the cartoons explicitly satirise specific fashion trends or silhouettes, whilst others poke fun at fashion generally. The author’s focus is on the iconography of ‘Mr. Punch’s Designs After Nature’, the real 1860s and 1870s fashions giving rise to these images' creation, as well as the visual and textual tradition of satire within which Sambourne’s cartoons can be situated. The article pays particular attention to the re-evaluation of the relationship between human and non-human in the light of Darwin’s ideas, and to the gender-related aspects of Sambourne’s zoomorphic images.
Research Interests: Fashion History, Roland Barthes, John Stuart Mill, Darwinian evolution, Charles Baudelaire, and 15 moreMermaids, Zoomorphism, Racial Stereotypes, Misogyny, Petticoats, Fashion Satire, Feathers, Friedrich Theodor Vischer, Seaside resorts, George Du Maurier, Grandville, Linley Sambourne, Punch Cartoons, History of Hairstyles, and Bustle
Conference videos can be accessed at: https://www.aseees.org/news-events/other-conferences/virtualconference-political-police?fbclid=IwAR08f7yB1qMQd9bDTcTvPl6OKrRfx4NwYGLaJAOZ2ydirXTX2_NHhuavHis
Research Interests: Soviet History, Cold War, Science Fiction, Detective Fiction, Documentary Photography, and 15 moreLiterary Genres, Soviet Dissidents, History of Football, History and Archives, Romanian Communist secret police, Sovietization, Gulag Literature, Socialist Bloc, Prison Medicine, Political Repressions In the USSR, Informers, The History of KGB, Repressive Activity of the GPU - NKVD - KGB In the XXth Century, Varlam Shalamov, and Soviet Ukrainian culture
The article looks at representations of nature in taxidermy across diverse contexts, from museum displays to fashionable accessories, and spanning two centuries, from the 1800s to nowadays. Monty Python's Dead Parrot makes a cameo... more
The article looks at representations of nature in taxidermy across diverse contexts, from museum displays to fashionable accessories, and spanning two centuries, from the 1800s to nowadays. Monty Python's Dead Parrot makes a cameo appearance, and so does Sir Alfred Hitchcock!
Research Interests: Fashion History, Hummingbirds, Post-Mortem Photography, Tableaux Vivants, Alfred Hitchcock, and 15 moreJulian Barnes, Taxidermy, Emile Zola, Ernst Haeckel, Monty Python, Gustave Flaubert, William Bullock, Representation of Nature, The Great Exhibition 1851, Millinery, Longing, Guy Bourdin, Flaubert's Parrot, Un coeur simple, and Reineke Fuchs
This article examines the language of clothes in Elia Kazan's 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire, focusing on the outfits of the main character, Blanche DuBois, portrayed by Vivien Leigh. Represented in contrast to the garments worn by... more
This article examines the language of clothes in Elia Kazan's 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire, focusing on the outfits of the main character, Blanche DuBois, portrayed by Vivien Leigh. Represented in contrast to the garments worn by other characters and especially her nemesis, Stanley Kowalski, Blanche's clothes express complex messages with regard to social class and cultural identity, which feed into broader midcentury controversies around fashion in America, the performativity of clothing and its potential uses as a passing device. Another line of enquiry concerns the differences between Tennessee Williams' descriptions of Blanche's appearance in the play and their realization on screen, the “translation” of the playwright’s remarks into cinematic images, and the resulting visual narratives, which give weight to specific readings of the plot. Finally, the article approaches the image of Blanche as a reflexive commentary on the nature of film and a critique of Hollywood glamor. By emphasizing the constructedness of Blanche’s appearance: her “dressing for the part,” the use of setting, lighting and even music to enhance her social performance, the film questions its own artifice, while Vivien Leigh simultaneously embodies and deconstructs the image of blonde femininity, which dominated the cinema of the era.
Research Interests: Visual Narrative, Costume and Identity in FIlm, Habitus, Tennessee Williams, New Orleans, and 15 moreJeans, Passing, Classical Hollywood Cinema, Glamour, Elia Kazan, Richard Dyer, Marlon Brando, Blanche Dubois, A Streetcar Named Desire, Film Costume and Visual Design, Yuri Tynianov, French Fashion, Vivien Leigh, American Fashion, and Stanley Kowalski
The article examines two pieces of journalism by Maxim Gorky published in early July 1896, where the aspiring writer shared his impressions of a visit to one of the first film showings in Russia. These texts are an important source for... more
The article examines two pieces of journalism by Maxim Gorky published in early July 1896, where the aspiring writer shared his impressions of a visit to one of the first film showings in Russia. These texts are an important source for studying viewers’ reception of early cinema, in particular due to their description of the Lumière brothers’ film Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station as “horrifying”. At the same time, the author addressed wider social and cultural issues, and it is the non-cinematic context of Gorky’s writings on cinema that the present article focuses on. The first section analyzes the connotations of Gorky’s references to the
cinema as “the kingdom of shadows”. Towards the latter half of the 19th century it became habitual in European literatures and visual arts to depict the life of the lower classes as the world of “shadows” or “spectres”. In his other writings, Gorky openly expressed his dissatisfaction with this representational cliché, and his articles on cinema can be viewed as a further exploration of this theme, drawing attention to the viewer’s position with regard to the shadowy spectacle of poverty and privation. The image of the (cinema) audience pictured by Gorky is examined in more detail in the second section of the article. Gorky’s texts on cinema are analysed as an episode in the history of images which illustrates the mutual influence of the visual and the verbal.
cinema as “the kingdom of shadows”. Towards the latter half of the 19th century it became habitual in European literatures and visual arts to depict the life of the lower classes as the world of “shadows” or “spectres”. In his other writings, Gorky openly expressed his dissatisfaction with this representational cliché, and his articles on cinema can be viewed as a further exploration of this theme, drawing attention to the viewer’s position with regard to the shadowy spectacle of poverty and privation. The image of the (cinema) audience pictured by Gorky is examined in more detail in the second section of the article. Gorky’s texts on cinema are analysed as an episode in the history of images which illustrates the mutual influence of the visual and the verbal.
Research Interests: Early Cinema, Mass culture, Spectatorship, Michel de Certeau, History of Prostitution, and 15 moreMarshall McLuhan, Symbolism (Art History), Georg Simmel, Haunting and Spectrality, Maxim Gorky, Max Nordau, Das Kapital, Velimir Khlebnikov, Nicholas Nickleby, Nikolai Gogol, John Tenniel, Representations of Poverty, Thomas Hood, Verbal and Visual Discourse, and Cabaret, Vaudeville, Burlesque
The article discusses posing conventions of current mainstream photography, focusing on constructions of femininity
Research Interests: Photography, Guy Debord, Performativity, Constructions of femininity, Erving Goffman, and 15 moreSusan Sontag, Everyday Life, M.C. Escher, Zygmunt Bauman, Andy Warhol, Glamour, Impossible Objects, Sculpture and Photography, Henry Fox Talbot, Instagram, the Cinderella Effect, Classical Sculpture, Joan Riviere, Contrapposto, and John Berger's Ways Of Seeing
The article examines the relationship between Russian and Ukrainian languages in Panas Myrny’s novels, which is regarded as an attempt to subvert the power dynamics between the imperial “centre” and its ethno-cultural “periphery”.
Research Interests: Modernization, Spelling, Michel de Certeau, Social Classes, Ukrainian Literature, and 15 moreBilingualism, Accents, Colonial Discourse, Russian Empire, Bureaucracy, Centre-Periphery Relations, Orality and Literacy, Ethnic Slurs, Dialects, Phonetic Transcription, Franz Fanon, Ukrainian Language, Peasant Movements, Ethnicity and Identity Politics, and zemstvo
The article traces parallels between painting and make-up suggested in art criticism, journalism and fiction of the modern era. In the 17th century, comparisons with make-up were used in the debates concerning the role of colour in... more
The article traces parallels between painting and make-up suggested in art criticism, journalism and fiction of the modern era. In the 17th century, comparisons with make-up were used in the debates concerning the role of colour in painting and the degree to which nature could be beautified. Two centuries later, discussions focused on cosmetics, the use of which was hailed by bohemians as an artistic gesture, in defiance of bourgeois notions of taste. Finally, towards the early 20th century, make-up was increasingly linked to art in commercial and everyday contexts, whereas avant-garde artists and modernist writers tended to regard these practices as mutually opposite. The article examines the evolution of views on the relationship between painting and make-up with regard to the notions of nature and artifice, original and copy, as well as constructions of gender.
Research Interests: Modernism, Constructions of femininity, Marcel Proust, Rosalind Krauss, Visual Masking, and 15 moreCharles Baudelaire, Peter Paul Rubens, François Boucher, Rococo visual culture, Richard Avedon, Originality in art, Roger de Piles, Nicolas Poussin, théophile Gautier, Make Up and Culture, Madame De Pompadour, August Sander, Disegno e colore, Christian Schad, and Ancients and Moderns
Research Interests: Visual propaganda, Historical memory, Leo Tolstoy, Fabrics, Souvenirs, and 15 moreExhibition Design, Textile, Early Soviet Culture, History of art and design, Noise Pollution, Late Imperial Russia, Decorative and Applied Arts, Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, VKHUTEMAS, History of textile manufacture, Factory History, History of Industrial Architecture, Lyubov Popova, and industrial modernity
Research Interests: Early Modern Europe, Roland Barthes, Molière, Keywords, Raymond Williams, and 15 moreConference Review, Baltasar Gracián, Jacques Callot, Richelieu, Fashion Plate, Restoration drama, Figures of Speech, Quarrel Between Ancients and Moderns, Caprichos, Emanuele Tesauro, Emblemata, Verbal-visual Representation, Mise En Abyme, dictionnaire de Furetière, and Giovanni Battista Bracelli
The article presents a case study of dietary recommendations given in the book "100 minutes for beauty" by Polish author Zofia Wędrowska - an influential text, which helped shape the notion of femininity as well as everyday beauty rituals... more
The article presents a case study of dietary recommendations given in the book "100 minutes for beauty" by Polish author Zofia Wędrowska - an influential text, which helped shape the notion of femininity as well as everyday beauty rituals in late Soviet culture. Discussing the values and symbolic structures embedded in the dietary regime and explanations accompanying it, the article attempts to answer the question: what could make dieting in general and Wędrowska’s approach in particular appealing to Soviet women, and at the same time what constituted its relevance from the point of view of the official Soviet ideology? I argue that "100 minutes for beauty" exemplifies subtler instruments of control characterizing societies of late modernity, and highlights the key role of women as subjects and mediators of this control.
Research Interests: Makeup and Cosmetics, Habitus, Pierre Bourdieu, Constructions of femininity, Marshall McLuhan, and 15 morePower relations, Late Socialism, Gender ideology, Dieting, Sociology of Taste, Delayed Gratification, Wisława Szymborska, Mother-daughter relationship, Standards of Beauty, Khrushchev, Slenderness, Soviet Everyday Life, Jacqueline Kennedy, Vienna Summit, and Beauty Tips for Women
Research Interests: Walter Benjamin, Virginia Woolf, Constructions of femininity, William Morris, Art Deco, and 15 moreGender Bias, John Berger, Coco Chanel, Ready-To-Wear, Swinging London, Fashion Designers, Vivienne Westwood, Fashion Exhibitions, A Room of One's Own, Lingerie Design, Haute Couture Fashion, Guerilla Girls, Neo-Rococo, Mary Quant, and Symbolic Value
Research Interests: Contemporary Art, Trade unionism, Materiality of Art, Constructions of masculinity, Exhibition Design, and 15 moreCultural hybridity, Climate Refugees, Death of the author, Stitched textiles, Modern Ruins, Thayaht, Jeremy Bentham, Bauhaus women, Archives and Art, Rohingya, Japanese Subcultures, Fashion Exhibitions, Rana Plaza, Kader Attia, and A Noiseless Patient Spider
Examining manicure practices, the article looks at the emergence in the early twentieth century of a cosmetic culture, unconnected with the concept of the natural. Where nails are concerned, natural beauty meant choosing tinting and... more
Examining manicure practices, the article looks at the emergence in the early twentieth century of a cosmetic culture, unconnected with the concept of the natural. Where nails are concerned, natural beauty meant choosing tinting and polishing materials that accentuated the nails' pink hue and shine. Later, nail varnish was created in order more effectively to serve the same purpose: its ability to make nails shiny was particularly valued. Meanwhile, stage make-up for hands involved painting nails red, which could look “natural” considering the lighting and distance between
the stage and the audience.
In the early twentieth century, members of the bohemian arts scene took
this practice outside the theater, turning it into an important element in
decadent aesthetics. With the appearance of nail varnish, red became a
popular color choice for manicure. This signaled a departure from nature
not only in tone, but also in chemical composition: thus, red nails came
to be seen as a sign of modernity and scientific progress. The author also
looks at the emergence of nail whitening with its connotations of cleanli-
ness as a consequence of the popularization of ideas on hygiene. The paper was first published in Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture 22 (2011) [Russian version].
the stage and the audience.
In the early twentieth century, members of the bohemian arts scene took
this practice outside the theater, turning it into an important element in
decadent aesthetics. With the appearance of nail varnish, red became a
popular color choice for manicure. This signaled a departure from nature
not only in tone, but also in chemical composition: thus, red nails came
to be seen as a sign of modernity and scientific progress. The author also
looks at the emergence of nail whitening with its connotations of cleanli-
ness as a consequence of the popularization of ideas on hygiene. The paper was first published in Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture 22 (2011) [Russian version].
Research Interests: Modernity, Lighting Design for Performance, Russian avant-garde art, Culture in the Soviet Union, Hand Hygiene, and 15 moreCharles Baudelaire, Colour, Cosmetic cultures, Natural Beauty, Italian Futurism, Fin de siecle Decadence, Stage Make-up, Russian Futurism, Valentin Serov, Natalia Goncharova, Nail Polish, Mikhail Larionov, Ida Rubinstein, manicure, and Ilya Zdanevich
The article examines representation of time and historical events in Modnyi Magazin (Fashionable Journal) — a highly popular women’s magazine established in 1862, shortly after the abolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire. The materials... more
The article examines representation of time and historical events in Modnyi Magazin (Fashionable Journal) — a highly popular women’s magazine established in 1862, shortly after the abolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire. The materials under consideration here, besides memoirs and essays directly addressing historical topics, include texts of diverse genres, from the editor’s perennial fashion column to pieces of polemical journalism dedicated to “the woman question”. Inspired by liberal reforms of the beginning of Alexander II’s reign, the editorial team and the authors of Modnyi Magazin promoted the notion of women’s rights, whose extension was described as a necessary stage of historical progress. At the same time, radical proponents of women’s emancipation were treated in the journal with suspicion due to the supposed lack of femininity evident in their rejection of fashion and good taste. Apart from being a staple of womanliness, fashion played a key role in defining historical sensibilities of the era: it helped visualize a linear timeline along which various events and personalities could be located, while also contributing to valorization of change. The article shows how the authors of Modnyi Magazin used the past to negotiate the notion of proper femininity, simultaneously carving out a place for women in history. The woman called to inhabit this place was pictured as a reader: the magazine’s audience was invited to identify with female historical characters shown poring over historical books and to appropriate their model emotional responses.
Research Interests: Historicism, History of Everyday Life, Constructions of femininity, Fashion Discourse, Dandyism, and 15 morethe Enlightenment, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Fashion Journalism, Marie Antoinette, History of Fashion, Russia's Great Reforms, PARIS -FASHION CAPITAL, Charlotte Corday, The Woman Question, Emancipation of Serfdom, Madame De Pompadour, Historical imagination, Jules-Amédée Barbey d' Aurevilly, women's reading, and Women’s Fashion Magazines
Research Interests: Fashion Theory, Recycling, Fashion History, Monstrosity, Exhibition Design, and 15 more18th Century Fashion, Colour, Luxury brand, Utilization of white spaces, Lining Materials, Cloth and Memory, Maison Martin Margiela, Visibility/invisibility, Deconstruction In Contemporary Fashion Design, Fashion Shows, Fashion Exhibitions, Cashmere Textiles, Pockets, Punk fashion, and Upcycling and DIY culture
Research Interests: Exhibition Design, Charles Baudelaire, Animal protection, Wool Textile Industry, Cotton, and 15 moreSlow Fashion, Recycled Materials, Erasmus Darwin, Fast Fashion, Ivory and Bone Working, Economic Colonialism, Royal Botanic Garden Kew, Henry Cole, Victoria and Albert Museum, Fashion Exhibitions, The Great Exhibition 1851, Immaterial Heritage, Nature and Fashion., Whalebone Plaques, and biofibres
This is a review of the Sinii Divan journal's special issue dedicated to contemporary art
Research Interests: Interdisciplinarity, Contemporary Art, Contemporary Poetry, Contemporary Art Music, Contemporary Theatre, and 15 moreCinema Studies, Contemporary Architecture, Berlin Wall, Art and society, Culture and Modernity, Action Art, Dmitri Prigov, Art connoisseurship, Definitions of Art, Art and Craft, Materiality in Art, Contemporary Art and Photography, Disciplinary Boundaries, Petr Pavlensky, and Dematerialization of Art
The article examines references to photography in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. In contrast to a well-established view of this medium’s role in the writer’s universe as secondary and purely negative, this article proceeds from... more
The article examines references to photography in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. In contrast to a well-established view of this medium’s role in the writer’s universe as secondary and purely negative, this article proceeds from the assumption that the invention and proliferation of photography in the 19th century was a major influence on Proust’s artistic vision. Photographs are present in Proust’s novel both as physical objects and as metaphors. As the former they appear mainly in social contexts, where they embody and visualize emotional exchanges, degrees of intimacy, connection and division of various milieus. Proust shows society, especially its elite strata, as operating in a quasi-mechanical way, and the photograph as an automatically produced image echoes this aspect of human relationships. On the other hand, metaphorical references to photography tend to emphasize the “internal” quality of the changes which the film undergoes, as well as their temporal dimension: a pause that lies at the very heart of the ever-increasing pace of modernity. Paradoxically combining the meanings of the serial and the unique, the photograph becomes a site where massified technical reproducibility becomes ‘dislocated’, creating a quintessentially modern experience of luxury.
Research Interests: Social Capital, Henri Bergson, Roland Barthes, Philosophy of Photography, Marcel Proust, and 15 moreMarshall McLuhan, Susan Sontag, Seriality, Camera Lucida, The Materiality of the Photographic Image, Luxury, Sense of Uniqueness, Culture and Modernity, Stereoscope, Punctum, Alfred Jarry, In Search of Lost Time, Involuntary memory, Swann's Way, and Kinetoscope
The article looks at attitudes towards cosmetics in Western societies in the time of industrial modernity. With make-up generally perceived negatively, any woman could be accused of using ‘dishonest’ means in order to improve her... more
The article looks at attitudes towards cosmetics in Western societies in the time of industrial modernity. With make-up generally perceived negatively, any woman could be accused of using ‘dishonest’ means in order to improve her appearance. Analyzing the reasons behind this situation, the author turns to the development in the nineteenth century of the physiognomic belief that a person’s character can be deduced from his or her appearance. In this context, the use of cosmetics could be seen as an attempt to hide the ‘truthful’ nature of one’s character. Other important factors in the development of perceptions of the cosmetic ‘lie’ were the nature of life in the big city, where visual stimuli are paramount; the symbolic confrontation of old and new elites, their values and aesthetic preferences; and the development of ideas on hygiene, which saw excessive decoration as ‘unhealthy’ and ‘slovenly’. Gusarova considers nineteenth-century discourse on cosmetics an example of panopticism, the total social (self)-control that in the view of Michel Foucault is typical of contemporary societies. Where make-up is concerned, the ‘panoptic machine’ works to produce normative femininity, defined through the figure of the Other, which may be constructed in different ways.
Research Interests: Physiognomy, Seneca, Michel Foucault, Georg Simmel, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and 15 moreFaust, Johann Caspar Lavater, Charles Baudelaire, Richard Sennett, Charles Darwin, Panopticism, Louis-Sebastien Mercier, History of cosmetics, Carlo Ginzburg, Coco Chanel, Jezebel, Stage Make-up, Duchenne De Boulogne, Othering and Alterity, and La Dame Aux Camelias
This article addresses the belief that washing can be dangerous for health and harmful for personal charms — a view that was widespread in early 20th century Europe. This phenomenon is examined in two major aspects: the language in which... more
This article addresses the belief that washing can be dangerous for health and harmful for personal charms — a view that was widespread in early 20th century Europe. This phenomenon is examined in two major aspects: the language in which these fears were expressed and explained and the conflict of values underlying such problematic attitude to water. It is argued that the way water’s action on the body was imagined was largely influenced by 19th-century practice of hydrotherapy and theories developed around it, which mostly used terms and concepts derived from humoral and vitalist medicine. However, hydrotherapists naturally stressed the benefits of water, so in order to see how the same features came to be viewed as dangerous the place of water in different symbolic orders has to be examined. A major conflict that seems to have found expression in water being perceived as dangerous was that between the “culture of the self” emphasizing personal development and search for happiness, on the one hand, and hygienic imperative that sacrificed individual freedom to the public good, on the other.
For the whole "Water and Body Fluids" anthology, see Gabriela-Mariana Luca's profile
For the whole "Water and Body Fluids" anthology, see Gabriela-Mariana Luca's profile
Research Interests: Michel Foucault, Vitalism-Mechanism Debate, Hippocrates, Norbert Elias, Hydrotherapy, and 15 moreHistory of cleanliness, Mary Douglas, Degeneration, Domestic Advice Manuals, Nikolai Gogol, Civilizing Process, Porous Bodies, Humoral Theory, History of Hygiene, Montpellier vitalism, Marie François Xavier Bichat, Purity and Danger, Georges Vigarello, Vincenz Prießnitz, and James Currie
The article addresses Ukrainian-language Wiki-community and its development in the early 2010s. Focusing on representation of Crimea in Ukrainian Wikipedia, it examines both the opportunities and the limitations embedded in its discursive... more
The article addresses Ukrainian-language Wiki-community and its development in the early 2010s. Focusing on representation of Crimea in Ukrainian Wikipedia, it examines both the opportunities and the limitations embedded in its discursive strategies.
The text was written in 2013 and does not discuss later events.
The text was written in 2013 and does not discuss later events.
Research Interests: Black Sea region, Public Space, Soft Power, Concept of native speaker, Toponymy, and 15 moreLanguage politics, Crimea, Exoticism, Wikipedia, Census, Status of Crimean tatars in Ukraine, Sevastopol, Tourist gaze, Post Soviet Ukraine, Michel Foucault and the theory of Power, Ethnographic imagination, Ukrainian Language, Representations of the Crimean War, Nature and Colonialism, and Tauris
This is my foreword to a reprint of 1858 collection of crinoline jokes, where I point out certain recurrent themes in fashion satire from the 18th to the 21st centuries
Research Interests: Knowledge Codification, Oral Traditions, Post-Soviet Studies, Simone de Beauvoir, Darwinism, and 15 moreGeorg Simmel, Bakhtin carnival and the grotesque body, Jokes, Caricatures, Representation of Women in Music Lyrics and Videos, History of clothing and fashion, Beauty Ideals, Fashion Satire, Gendered ageism, Degeneration, Christian Louboutin France, Urban Folklore, Victorian fashion, Trickle Up and Down in Fashion, and Soviet hippies
The article addresses representations of Crimea in Ukrainian Wikipedia with regards to integrative potential of these depictions as well as their limitations. It argues that the possibilities the Free Encyclopedia holds for national and... more
The article addresses representations of Crimea in Ukrainian Wikipedia with regards to integrative potential of these depictions as well as their limitations. It argues that the possibilities the Free Encyclopedia holds for national and global integration have so far remained largely unexplored. The very act of joining this international project proves fraught with nationalist anxieties, as language editions start competing with each other instead of promoting common values. As to Crimean position within Ukraine, anonymous authors mostly choose to reproduce imperial stereotypes rather than develop new modes of representation. All in all, however, Ukrainian Wikipedia can be called a place of integration, as new groups (in the article – Crimean Tatats) start finding participation in it meaningful and attractive.
This article was written before 2014 and does not address later developments.
This article was written before 2014 and does not address later developments.
Research Interests:
This article examines the possible roots of the change in cultural attitudes, due to which fashionable objects of animal origin started to be viewed negatively in Russian fashion periodicals and advice manuals of the early twentieth... more
This article examines the possible roots of the change in cultural attitudes, due to which fashionable objects of animal origin started to be viewed negatively in Russian fashion periodicals and advice manuals of the early twentieth century. Among these influences, we may count the development of the animal protection movement, with the Russian Society for the Protection of Animals established in 1865. Although initially this association was not concerned with fashion, it shaped the notion of the cruel treatment of animals, drawing public attention to this issue. An analysis of non-fiction writing by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vikentii Veresaev will show that, while the Society’s agenda was ambiguous and met with a mixed response, the new sensibilities this group promoted were increasingly internalized by the educated public.
On the other hand, fashion criticism during the era argued that fashion distorts and deforms human shape by giving it animal features – that is, it assists degeneration. A reversal of evolution, in this case triggered by brutality, was similarly evoked by the proponents of animal protection. The newly perceived inappropriateness of certain fashionable objects was thus due to the double ‘animality’ they were believed to impart to the wearer: that of following the ‘fashion instinct’ and that of being complicit in violence.
On the other hand, fashion criticism during the era argued that fashion distorts and deforms human shape by giving it animal features – that is, it assists degeneration. A reversal of evolution, in this case triggered by brutality, was similarly evoked by the proponents of animal protection. The newly perceived inappropriateness of certain fashionable objects was thus due to the double ‘animality’ they were believed to impart to the wearer: that of following the ‘fashion instinct’ and that of being complicit in violence.
Research Interests: Fashion Theory, Ethical Fashion, Constructions of femininity, Evolutionary theory, Taxidermy, and 15 moreFyodor Dostoevsky, Fashion Journalism, Cruelty to Animals, History of clothing and fashion, Fashion Satire, History of Animal Protectionism, Anti-Vivisection, Friedrich Theodor Vischer, Dress reform, Fashion Capitals, Ivan Turgenev, Millinery, Ethnicization of Cruelty to Animals, Fashion Criticism, and The Civilizing Process
My only attempt at "trend analysis" so far - an essay about ss2014 collections I wrote for the Russian airline TRANSAERO's onboard magazine.
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This essay examines references to toilet soap in Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls" and speculates how the readings of this detail might have changed in the context of developing cosmetics and toiletries industry in the Russian Empire and... more
This essay examines references to toilet soap in Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls" and speculates how the readings of this detail might have changed in the context of developing cosmetics and toiletries industry in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union and wider changes in consumption culture and people's daily lives.
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В статье прослеживается изменение на протяжении 1920-х гг. представлений о пище как основе пролетарской идентичности. "Рабочий класс" рассматривается при этом как воображаемая общность, конструирование которой лишь предстояло осуществить.... more
В статье прослеживается изменение на протяжении 1920-х гг. представлений о пище как основе пролетарской идентичности. "Рабочий класс" рассматривается при этом как воображаемая общность, конструирование которой лишь предстояло осуществить. Реальный рацион в качестве объединяющего основания оказывался менее эффективным, чем пищевые метафоры, описывавшие культурное потребление. Создание общности осуществлялось в значительной степени за счет противопоставления "своих" и "чужих", и метафорический язык позволял более четко провести границы и в то же время сгладить возможные внутренние противоречия. Замещение фактической еды "культурной пищей" происходило не только в публицистических текстах, но и в повседневной действительности, что мы рассмотрим на примере культработы в обеденный перерыв.
Research Interests: Visual Anthropology, Social Identity, Culture in the Soviet Union, Imagined Community, Food & Culture, and 7 morePolitical Caricature, Tradition and Modernity, Working class culture, Food-Based Metaphors and Similes, Fashion and Clothing consumption, Soviet Culture and Ideology, and The Dichotomy of them and us
The article looks at the emergence in the early twentieth century of a cosmetic culture, unconnected with the concept of the natural. This latter lay at the heart of the previous century's beauty canons, and to some extent retained its... more
The article looks at the emergence in the early twentieth century of a cosmetic culture, unconnected with the concept of the natural. This latter lay at the heart of the previous century's beauty canons, and to some extent retained its importance even in the twentieth century. Where nails are concerned, natural beauty meant choosing tinting and polishing materials which accentuated the nails' pink hue and shine. Later, nail varnish was created in order more effectively to serve the same purpose: its ability to make nails shiny was particularly valued. Meanwhile, stage makeup for hands involved painting the nails red: stage lighting and distance from the audience could not help but affect the "natural" image. In the early twentieth century, members of the bohemian arts scene took this practice outside the theatre, turning it into an important element in decadent aesthetics. With the appearance of nail varnish, red became a popular colour choice for manicure. This signaled a departure from nature not only in tone, but also in chemical composition: thus, red nails came to be seen as a sign of modernity and scientific progress. Finally, the third "colour of the nail" examined in the article is white, with its connotations of cleanliness, which became particularly important as a result of popularization of hygienic ideas.
Research Interests: Dandyism, History of cosmetics, History of cleanliness, Beauty Ideals, Theatricality and performativity, and 13 moreGloves, Colour Symbolism, Natural Beauty, Stage Make-up, Eugene Onegin, Russian Futurism, History of Hygiene, Lipstick, Space Age, Nail Polish, Mikhail Larionov, Ida Rubinstein, and manicure
The article looks at literary and theatrical criticism in Soviet periodical press of the 1920s, where audiences' interaction with art, literature and performance was habitually described using metaphors of food, feasting, fasting and... more
The article looks at literary and theatrical criticism in Soviet periodical press of the 1920s, where audiences' interaction with art, literature and performance was habitually described using metaphors of food, feasting, fasting and gluttony. I argue that this specific language was used as a weapon in a symbolic battle over what constituted the true proletarian culture. This battle was fought by intellectuals of different aesthetic and ideological leanings, foretelling the tragic events of the following decade when many of them would eventually "eat" each other.
Research Interests: Proletarian Literature and Culture, Russian Formalism, Socialist Realism, Marxist Literary Theory, Early Soviet Culture, and 9 moreVsevolod Meyerhold, Food Culture, Food-Based Metaphors and Similes, Mechanicism, Peasantry, Bourgeois culture, Visual Anthropology and Media Representations, Moscow Art Theatre, and Konstantin Stanislawski
The article looks at changing hair care practices in the late 19th - early 20th century - a time which saw a significant shift in perceptions of dirt and cleanliness. Due in part to technological innovation and the popularization of new... more
The article looks at changing hair care practices in the late 19th - early 20th century - a time which saw a significant shift in perceptions of dirt and cleanliness. Due in part to technological innovation and the popularization of new scientific knowledge, this change was also brought about by evolving social relationships and the symbolic structures underlying them. In the late 19C, the main hair care products were grease pomades, which were also used to clean the hair. Another, less frequently used method of dry-cleaning the hair involved powder. Hair powder usually reappeared during periods of revival of 18th-century styles - at other times, its use was frowned upon. Up until the early 20C, hair was always dry-cleaned before combing, whereas washing the hair was often considered harmful. With advances in microbiology, however, ideas of cleanliness evolved, and hair-washing gradually became more widespread. The fusion and mutual influence of medical and aesthetic considerations, which brought about such changes in hair care practices, are crucial to understanding the history of body practices in the 20C.
Research Interests: History of the Senses, Jean Paul Sartre, Constructions of femininity, Norbert Elias, Louis-Sebastien Mercier, and 15 moreHistory of Perfumes, History of cosmetics, History of cleanliness, Mary Douglas, Natural Beauty, Germ theory of medicine, History of Hygiene, History of Hairstyles, Shampoo, History of Hair, History of Wigs, History of Smells and Olfactory Sensibility, Alain Corbin, Georges Vigarello, and Vision and tactility
Research Interests: Museums and Exhibition Design, History of Everyday Life, Applied Arts, Objects Conservation, Art Nouveau, and 15 moreBallets Russes, Pablo Picasso, Stage Design, Sergei Diaghilev, Nicholas Roerich, Henri Matisse, Slavic Mythology, The Rite of Spring, Theatre & Performance Costumes, Natalia Goncharova, The Firebird, Léon Bakst, Mikhail Larionov, Tretyakov gallery, and Alexandre Benois
The article looks at European stage and everyday make-up conventions of the late 19th and early 20th century, focusing on physiognomical coding of complexion shades and the ideas about gender, age, class and race it expressed.
Research Interests: Romanticism, Physiognomy, Race and Ethnicity, Charles Baudelaire, Colour and Light, and 15 moreDecadence, Whiteness, Early Soviet Culture, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Classical Antiquity, Academicism, History of cosmetics, Blackface, Yves Saint Laurent, Natural Beauty, Denis Diderot, Stage Make-up, théophile Gautier, Make Up and Culture, and Humoral Theory
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This was my first attempt at writing for a "glossy" - the now sadly defunct Russian lifestyle magazine Hooligan. In the article I briefly survey the history of fashion over the last two centuries, focusing on the many "ends" it has... more
This was my first attempt at writing for a "glossy" - the now sadly defunct Russian lifestyle magazine Hooligan. In the article I briefly survey the history of fashion over the last two centuries, focusing on the many "ends" it has already been faced with.
Research Interests: Fashion History, Jean Baudrillard, Fashion Media, Piet Mondrian, Salvador Dali, and 15 moreLuxury and Fashion Brands, Patrick Süskind, Fashion and Art, Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, New Look, Haute couture, Charles Frederick Worth, Chambre syndicale de la couture parisienne, Empress Eugenie - Impératrice Eugénie, Mary Quant, Paco Rabanne, and Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and Austria
The article considers early Soviet approaches to childhood as exemplified in particular in the creation and operation of the pioneer organization
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The article discusses the relationship between glamour, fashion and social inequality in Russia of the 2000s. For the whole issue of kultura, in German and in English, see Birgit Menzel's profile.
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The article looks at the intersection of social habitus, hygienic movement and cosmetic marketing in late Imperial Russia, as these and other influences shaped and transformed the ideas of cleanliness
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Research Interests: Cold War and Culture, Anthropometrics, Representation of Others, Culture in the Soviet Union, Marketing & Advertising, and 9 moreRepresentation, The Archaeology of the Recent Past, History of clothing and fashion, Seamstresses, Soviet Press, Soviet Cinema, Hygienic Movement, Studio Photographic Portraits, and Soviet Fashion
The article focuses on the ways in which the quotidian is represented in museum exhibitions. Topics dealing with perfumes and cosmetics, here serving as an example, usually stay on the margins of contemporary Russian historical narrative,... more
The article focuses on the ways in which the quotidian is represented in museum exhibitions. Topics dealing with perfumes and cosmetics, here serving as an example, usually stay on the margins of contemporary Russian historical narrative, and therefore lack interpretive frameworks and vocabularies. Museum exhibitions which show perfumes and cosmetics reproduce a fixed set of contexts examined in this article: "treasury" (representation built around high market value and aesthetic qualities of the package), "history of industries" (focusing on individual entrepreneurs and the development of their businesses), or "backstage" (recreation of an actor's dressing room). Besides, the ways of exhibiting everyday objects from the Soviet period are still heavily charged with ideological connotations.
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The article uses oral history and materials of Soviet periodical press to examine the ambiguous status of cosmetics in Soviet culture
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This dissertation examines cosmetic culture and hygienic practices in late imperial Russia