The chapters in this volume consider gender and sexuality as phenomena informing the post-Petrine "modern" phase of Russian civilisation, offering a balance of interpretive, analytical and theoretical writings. While each is of interest as a separate study of history, art, folklore, philosophy or literature, the contributions are methodically united and arranged into groups according to the sequence of arguments they develop: Gender and Power, Gender and National Identity, Sexual Identity and Artistic Impression, Literary Discourse of Male and Female Sexualities, Sexuality and Literature in Contemporary Russian Society. Even though pre-Petrine Russia, the Soviet and the post-Soviet periods are considered specifically in several of the essays, the book chiefly highlights the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: these periods-while extensively scrutinised in traditional scholarships-have to date received insufficient attention in cultural and gender studies.--Publisher description.