‘Among the Sages and Prophets’: Russian Spirituality in Britain, 1850s–1920s

Abstract

This thesis explores Anglophone translations of Russian texts, broadly defined as spiritual – i.e., encompassing religious values and secular expressions of beliefs –produced from the second half of the nineteenth until the first two decades of the twentieth century. I adopt Pascale Casanova’s framework for analysing inter-cultural exchange as a global phenomenon. The thesis makes the case for enlarging the scope of Casanova’s theory to include not only secular literary productions but also religious and philosophical works, which I argue as being integral parts of literary culture. The three chapters of this thesis focus on the following types of translated literature: (1) the life stories and religious essays of Russian theologians – specifically Patriarch Nikon and Aleksei Khomiakov; 2) religious and secular poetry; and (3) biographical accounts and literary works of Russian writers – Lev Tolstoi and Fëdor Dostoevskii. Following the sociological turn in Translation Studies, the thesis reconstructs the microhistories of cultural mediators – my umbrella term encompassing translators, critics, commentators, and Orthodox religious experts – who acted as gatekeepers of Russia’s spiritual heritage in Britain. Driven by their fascination with the spiritual aspects of Russian culture, William Palmer, William John Birkbeck, John Mason Neale, Edward Alexander Cazalet, Aylmer Maude, Maurice Baring, John Middleton Murry, and others promoted it to British audiences in various ways. They aimed to acquire ‘symbolic capital’ – a term coined by Pierre Bourdieu which I use to encompass translators’ search for personal prestige, recognition, and a consecrated status as cultural custodians, artists, and thinkers in their own right. Each chapter examines how this symbolic capital was sought and acquired through the transmission of Russian spiritual culture to British readers. The thesis, via close reading, makes the case that secular and religious spirituality alike were key for these mediation processes. This illustrates how Britain’s perception of Russia’s distinctive spirituality, as shaped by these inter-cultural mediators, influenced Russia’s standing as a significant location in the international literary landscape.